Yvonne
As happens from time to time, I am making a short diversion away from the ‘bookish’ posts you will usually find here, to share one of my other pastimes with you.
Yes! I am a not so secret dissectologist – or someone who enjoys jigsaw puzzle assembly.
Unfortunately, as this is quite a ‘vintage’ puzzle, there is no image available for magnification. However, if you click on this Amazon link there is a slightly more ‘uncluttered’ image to take a look at!
CADBURY’S
In 1824, John Cadbury opened hid grocery business in Bull Street, Birmingham, UK.
By the turn of the Century, Cadbury’s had grown from a one-man business into a company employing 2,700 people in a modern factory, built at Bournville, just outside Birmingham. It was a factory built to standards well ahead of its time both in terms of the work environment and generous recreational facilities provided by Cadbury for its employees.
By the beginning of the twentieth Century, advertising was very much accepted as part of day to day life, in helping to establish brands such as Cadbury’s, as household names. We are talking about a time long before radio or television and one of the most popular methods of advertising was the use of posters.
Hundreds of posters were published over this period, advertising many famous Cadbury products. The very familiar Cadbury script logo, was first introduced in 1952, and was based on the signature of William A. Cadbury.
GIBSONS PUZZLES
Gibsons Games is an independent, family-owned British board game and jigsaw puzzle manufacturer, and the oldest of its kind in the United Kingdom.
In 1903, Harry Gibson managed to obtain an unsecured loan of £500 from the Royal Bank of Scotland in Bishopsgate, London. This generous sum enabled him to start a business, which at that time was called The International Card Co. Trading from offices in Aldersgate Street, he supplied retailers with a range of products including card games and postcards; an unlikely combination these days, but back then, most towns would have a number of stationers in the High Street and they became Harry Percy’s first customers.
The International Card business was sold to the De La Rue Company and H. P. Gibson & Sons Limited was formed in 1919. The International Series brand continued to be used on some products right up to the early 1980s, but H P Gibson & Sons Ltd made its name with the ‘HPG’ brand of indoor games, with old favourites such as L’Attaque and Dover Patrol; huge sellers before and after the Second World War. Sadly the company’s premises, along with all its manufacturing equipment were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940 and when the war ended, it was almost a case of starting from scratch.
Robert and Harry Gibson, sons of the founder, re-established trading from Barrett Street in London’s West End. The company continued to sell its own family games and pastimes, alongside ranges from other established names, including Waddingtons and Chad Valley. 1966 Harry Percy’s grandson, Michael Gibson joined the family business. He remembers his father paying him £11.00 a week out of which he had to pay his mother living expenses. In the late 70s H P Gibson & Sons shortened its name to ‘Gibsons’, and shortly after, in the early 80s, Gibsons introduced their first jigsaw puzzles.
Visit Gibsons at their website
Follow Gibsons on Twitter
Connect with Gibsons on Facebook
Cadbury’s, like so many of my jigsaws, was a charity shop purchase, so I am at the mercy of the donor as to the quality of the product. In this instance the quality was excellent and joy of joys! all the pieces were there!
Any thoughts or comments are my own personal opinion and I am in no way being monetarily compensated for this, or any other article promoting Gibsons puzzles.
I personally do not agree with ‘rating’ a purchase, as the overall experience is all a matter of personal taste, which varies from person to person. However some review sites do demand a rating value, so when this review is posted to such a site, it will attract 5 out of 5 stars.
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Hi Yvonne!
My aunt used to love jigsaw puzzles and I still have a few of them here. I used to love building them as well when I was young. I should try it again! While listening to audio books might be a good idea.
I love those Cadbury puzzles. They are vintage and gorgeous!
Hope you are well otherwise and thank you so much for stopping by our WWW earlier this week!
Elza Reads
Hi Mareli & Eliza,
I have a special puzzle board that I can fold up and put away if company comes and I need to use the whole length of the dining table (now being allowed to have visitors indoors, that would be a novelty! Maybe come June, when lockdown is finally over 🙂 ), but I usually have the board at one end of the table, so that I can dip in and out of the jigsaw just for a few minutes at a time. I would spend much longer working them, but I do get a little carried away with the time and they can certainly be time-wasters, even if they are relaxing.
I tend to prefer these montage style puzzles, over the traditional ‘chocolate box’ country cottage/garden scenes, I find them much more fun and interesting.
Sorry I couldn’t take part in WWW this time, I will try for next time, but I have so many review spots already scheduled that it might be difficult. I’ll try to keep Wednesday’s free from now on! 🙂
Oh, I like this one and think it would be fun to work. It looks like it wouldn’t be too terribly difficult – just challenging enough to be enjoyable.
Yes, this was definitely fun to work, although I was holding my breath as to whether there would be any missing pieces!
This is a ‘vintage’ puzzle in every sense of the word. The images obviously depict Cadbury’s advertising from many decades ago, which made it interesting to work up.
However, the jigsaw itself is a very early Gibsons offering, which I purchased as ‘pre-owned’ from the charity shop, so if someone had had this box lying around in a cupboard for some time, there was always the risk of missing pieces – Phew! all was well though and it looked great when finished, all ready to pass on to my MIL, who already had her eye on it!
I hope that you had a lovely ‘family meet’ and that you enjoy your Sunday 🙂
Just caught your latest musical offering, and although I was determined to see it through to the bitter end, I’m afraid that this is just not my style of music at all. We do however, have a friend who listens to nothing but blues music, so I’ll pass the artist details and link on to him, just in case he hasn’t come across Holmes before, although that’s a long-shot, as he is an avid collector of blues material, and has been for many years.
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Ah, well. I knew when I posted it that it wouldn’t be to most folk’s taste. I hope your friend enjoys it!
This is great, I love vintage advertising though my personal favourites are the vintage railway and underground illustrations. I love a good jigsaw too!
Hi Heather,
I always have a puzzle on the go, even though they can take me some time to complete, as I like to do them to relax occasionally, rather than make it a mission to finish them as quickly as possible.
If you want to check out the style of jigsaws I enjoy working, you can go to the menu in the side bar and open up the ‘My Latest News And Musings’ category, where you will uncover the sub category which contains all my jigsaw reviews.
Right now I am being a little unseasonal and I am working a montage of vintage Christmas ‘classic’ art.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope your weekend has been good 🙂
Aww, how lovely. I like the puzzle so much. I’m wondering if you’ve had more cups of hot chocolate or chocolate when you made this puzzle. :))
Hi Anca,
Believe me! – I need no excuse for either hot chocolate or Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate – and certainly not a jigsaw puzzle 🙂 🙂
Seriously though, some of the ‘vintage’ advertisements depicted in this jigsaw, are less likely to make me desire chocolate, not more. I had thought that advertising had moved on somewhat, although after watching an advert on TV last night, where I had no idea what was being promoted, even when it was explained to me, I’m not so sure!
Thanks for stopping by and I hope that your day is going well so far 🙂
I agree that some of the old ads/labels were more funny and certainly more clear than the new ones.
It’s good to hear that Cadbury’s is going to be moving some of its jobs and manufacturing back into the UK where it belongs!