Heard it through the Grapevine

Puzzled by What to do During the Coronavirus Quarantine?

Why not put together a bottle puzzle?

This 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle titled “Colorful Bottles” is put out by the Ravensburger Puzzle Co. of Germany. It can be found online at various retailers, including Amazon, Target and eBay, as well as direct from the Ravensburger website. Now, if we could only find the bottles in these colors!

Puzzled? Wikipedia offers this history: “Jigsaw puzzles were originally created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into small pieces. Despite it being called a jigsaw, a jigsaw was never actually used to cut it. John Spilsbury, a London cartographer and engraver, is credited with commercializing jigsaw puzzles around 1760.”

In today’s world, there are 3-D puzzles as well as computer-generated puzzles. The most expensive puzzle to date was sold for $27,000 in 2005 at a charitable auction.

Now, here’s a more complete picture of Ravensburger, a Gerrman game and toy company, publishing house and market leader in the European jigsaw puzzle market. The company was founded by Otto Robert Maier in Ravensburg, and he began publishing in 1883. He started publishing instruction folders for craftsmen and architects, and his first board game appeared in 1884, named “Journey Around the World.” In September 2010, Ravensburger set a record for the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle of 24,000 pieces. Ravensburger’s current largest puzzle is “Memorable Disney Moments” with 40,320 pieces!

FYI: “Jig-Saw Puzzle” is a song by the Rolling Stones on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet.

RIGHT: The British Library adds this about the Spilsbury jigsaw: “Europe divided into its kingdoms, etc. Believed to be the first purpose-made jigsaw puzzle. Map pasted onto board and dissected along country boundaries to make an educational jigsaw puzzle. In fifty pieces, of which four (for Scotland, the Channel, the Netherlands, and Corsica & Sardinia) are missing, and that for the Gulf of Finland is damaged. Lid of box contains reduced copy of map and incomplete handwritten label.”

4 Antique Bottle & Glass Collector

Heard it through the Grapevine

Note the shipping box I got at an auction just a few days ago. And it sure wasn’t cheap!

A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of … Toilet Paper?* No Kidding

Our Ralph Finch rhapsodizes about the bottom line.

If you turn on the TV news or pick up a newspaper, the No. 1 conversation is the coronavirus (no one wants it), and the No. 2 topic, if you’ll pardon the bad pun, is toilet paper (everyone wants it).

Regarding the health issue, the Finches feel fine. And since we are well stocked with food and toilet paper and as long as the pizza delivery man doesn’t get sick, we are GREAT! (The important thing is to not run out of toilet paper before you run out of food.)

And, as the world goes to hell in a handbasket, my handbasket overflows with 48 examples of antique rolls of toilet paper!

Some have interesting names, like Edelweis (remember the Sound of Music?), and some have bird names, like Bob White (perfect for Finches?), and some have Indian names like Iroquois, and Seminole (which now cost more than a buck, if you buy one, you can’t return it: that would make you an Indian-giver). Or the President (where the buck does stop?) And Mecca (do you have to face East to use this?) or Japanese, when you face west?

A couple are new, like Grand Hotel, from Michigan’s Mackinac Island. A few of the old ones have colorful names, like Pink Roll and Golden. And two Crosses, both White and Blue.

And Wizard, when it might take a wish by a genie to unplug your plumbing, or Six Flags, that you can wave when you think you are done, or Stop when you really are done?

Or the Santa Fe, when your caboose is backed up, or Giant, when you are facing a big job.

A couple are royal, for use on the throne: Empress and Windsor (as in the castle). And how about the Champion, for when you are facing a big challenge?

I even have two small rolls that might be salesman samples. *As Omar Khayyam wrote in The Rubaiyat, around 1120 A.C.E.. And one wonders what he used for toilet paper? In the past, grass, leaves, sponges, linen, cotton, scraps of paper, and, of course, corn cobs were used.

And there is a video, called “A Brief History of Toilet Paper,” which can be found on the internet.

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Advertising and stoneware collector Steve Ketcham of Minnesota recently wrote:

“Congratulations to Ralph Finch. I see what you did there, Ralph. You built a collection of toilet paper in historic proportions long before the rest of us thought of it. Well played, Ralph. Well played.”

And I confessed: “I am waiting until the demand peaks, then put ‘em out on eBay at $100 a roll, limit of two per customer. Man, I’ll be flushed with money!”

PS: In a week, I turn 80. I never expected such a wonderful life, in large part to the hobby and Janet.