GERMAN CATALOGUES

On page two, one can read the following introduction, written in the German style with very long sentences, which I tried to translate in the same style:

            The Zag-Zaw Puzzle, no longer is the luxury and choice pastime of small selected part of our international society, the Zag-Zaw Puzzle did become a household item for every well educated family.

            For the hours of relaxation after working hard, as a quiet pastime far away from the hasty world, for the nasty und unpleasant rainy days, when even a good book can not arrest the attention for long and the mind longs for a change, so for all people who have to stay home and are looking for a divertissement for them and their friends, the Zag-Zaw Puzzle is an ideal and relieving idea. With a Zag-Zaw Puzzle one can all alone assemble a wonderful picture, from small wooden pieces cut like a mosaic fitting tight. Without a guiding picture assembling is possible by looking at the colours on the pieces, the engravings, patterns and lines on the wooden parts using as clues.

            The joy and satisfaction form this work is indescribable. Only those that have done puzzles will now how valuable that is.

            The joys of a Zag-Zaw Puzzle are in a red jacket, slowly developing into a figure, a tee trunk gradually becoming the centre of a landscape, a fishing net, only because of the harmony of the colours, being a part of a growing seascape, when sharp perception and concentrated brain-work places the pieces well and assembles them.

            The games are made of choice plywood and the pictures of the high quality, known from the irreproachable publications of the big publishers RAPHAEL TUCK & SONS.

            Once should care to have a good choice of Zag-Zaw Puzzles in every home; they are made in 13 different sizes, after the following prices, and can be recognised from their red, sealed boxes, the name of our Company and the trade mark, easel and palette, the absolute guarantee for the best quality in art and all art products.

The third page of this catalogue mentions 20 noble ladies amongst whom several German Queens. Here an engraving of a puzzle shows no figural pieces and though the cutting is not on colour lines, it’s with respect to important parts of the picture.   

The Germans obviously liked the same puzzle tournaments (Progressive Puzzle Parties) as the English. Page 12 of the German catalogue advertises them.

This catalogue is very similar to a 1913/14 German catalogue. The 1913/14 copy has the same prices, but 16 pages in stead of 24. There are less advertisements for other Tuck products. The puzzle pictures are updated and more military. Preluding a war? In the 1913/14 catalogue are a few lines form a German professor to point at the high quality of the art prints, also in the tournament puzzles.