Insanely Expensive Jigsaw Puzzles

Long ago, in 1760, when jigsaw puzzles were first introduced by John Spilsbury, they were very expensive. Originally designed to teach upper class children about the countries in the British Empire, they were hand made by affixing maps to thin sheets of wood and carefully cutting out the various countries with a fine saw – delicate and time consuming work!

As time passed, the price of jigsaw puzzles dropped, but as they were still usually handmade, only families with significant disposable income were able to afford the puzzles. This changed in the early 1930s when die cut cardboard puzzles were introduced. After that, anyone who had a dime could buy a jigsaw puzzle – in fact, they were so popular during the 1930s that at their peak of popularity in 1933, over ten million jigsaw puzzles were being sold a week.

Jigsaw puzzles remain a popular and inexpensive pastime for the whole family. But, even though the majority of jigsaw puzzles are available for less than ten dollars, there are still some very expensive puzzles on the market – many costing over a hundred dollars! Although one could debate whether a puzzle is worth that much, it can’t be denied that some of these expensive jigsaw puzzles include some amazingly cool features. Some are three dimensional architectural puzzles and others include working LED lights. Some are simply huge puzzles with over 20,000 pieces.

Below is a selection of some of these very expensive, but equally interesting jigsaw puzzles:

This is a big jigsaw puzzle.  A REALLY big jigsaw puzzle.  Containing 24,000 pieces (that’s 24 thousand!) it has images of fish, animals, Atlantis, sailboats, the solar system and more.  When completed, the puzzle measures 14’ x 6’ – you could almost cover a wall with it!  If you are someone you know is a connoisseur of puzzles, this might be the one for them.  It is manufactured by Educa puzzles in Barcelona, a company that is considered to make some of the finest puzzles.  The company also features a “lost puzzle piece guarantee”, just in case you get to the 23,999^th piece and find that a piece has disappeared.

This is a three dimensional puzzle of the Empire State Building in New York City.  The puzzle is made of paper and EPS foam and doesn’t require any tools to put it together.  Unlike the previous 24,000 piece puzzle, this one is only 38 pieces, and much easier to put together.  When finished though, you will have a scale model of the iconic Empire State building, complete with an LED base that lights up the puzzle from the inside (the base uses three AA batteries).  When complete, the structure measures about 6.5” x 4.7” x 15.1”.

Claude Monet’s famous Le Pont Japonais painting is featured in this high quality puzzle made by Wentworth. The puzzle is made of wood and is cut in the classic Victorian style in which every piece is a different shape and also includes the traditional “whimsies” – puzzle pieces cut in a variety of special shapes – flowers, trees, animals, etc. They are called whimsies as the puzzle cutters of the last century cut them as a whim (the pieces of this puzzle are cut by state of the art computer driven laser technology). This puzzle measures approximately 15” x 20” when completed.

This is another architectural jigsaw puzzle, this one featuring the Statue of Liberty.  Similar to the Empire State Building puzzle above, it is made of paper and EPS foam board and includes 37 pieces.  This stylish puzzle measures about 9.5” x 8” x 10” when completed and features a base with an LED light that illuminates the puzzle from the inside (the base LED uses three AA batteries).  The puzzle is convenient to put together and requires no glue, scissors or other items.

Dolfi Woodcarvings are based in South Tyrol, Italy.  They produce a wide variety of hand crafted wooden 3D jigsaw puzzles.  These puzzles don’t have thousands of pieces, but when completed, they have their own unique charm.  They have a wide range of three dimensional puzzle designs including a dinosaur, pirate ship, Christmas tree, motorcycle, Volkswagen, and much more – something for almost anyone!   These jigsaw puzzles come in foam lined gift boxes, so are perfect for a gift!