The emerging children's culture of the mid-eighteenth century produced toys and games that were often as ornamental as they were practical, and the demand for increasingly unique and interesting items had eventually resulted in jigsaw puzzles.
The invention of these is widely attributed to John Spilsbury (1739-1769), a British cartographer, engraver and map-seller who, in 1766, affixed a world map to a wooden boardand carved each country out. There are, however, earlier references to these sorts of geographical games made by a Madame de Beaumont in Paris. Her sets were typically expensive, and were of the style popular among the elite, for whom these items were made into symbols of status. In Jane Austen's 1814 novel 'Mansfield Park', for example, the poor protagonist is mocked by her wealthy cousins because she "cannot put the map of Europe together".
The cartographic jigsaws of John Spilsbury were also designed initially as games for the elite, his first one being presented to the children of King George III and Queen Charlotte, but were later sold to boarding schools as well, as teaching aids for geography classes. As pupils put the pieces together, they would learn how different countries connected to one another. During the 1760s, he created a variety of sets, including jigsaws of England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, together with puzzles of the four continents.
The present example, dated 1767, shows the counties of Scotland distinguished by colour border and with colour wash. The style and use of colour indicates that Spilsbury intended to turn this map into one of his dissected cartographical jigsaw puzzles. The Scottish counties, or shires, had undergone extensive political and administrative reform during the eighteenth century, particularly after the 1707 Act of Union with England and the 1747 Sheriffs Act, but their geographical situation remained relatively stable throughout this period. As well as the mainland, Spilsbury's map shows the surrounding archipelagos of the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands. In between the Northern Highlands and the Outer Hebrides, there is a small cartouche containing the Spilsbury's imprint, and in the lower left-hand corner a larger and more ornate cartouche contains the title, date and the maker's name. The same year, Spilsbury published 'Ireland divided into its provinces & counties', which does not appear to have been sold in jigsaw form.
Exceedingly rare; we have not been able to trace any other examples of Spilsbury's map of Scotland, either dissected or undissected, as here.