I knew virtually nothing about Marco Polo and this puzzle prompted me to do just a little bit of reading about him and his travels, why his name is still known about 750 years later. I’m not an expert after reading a couple entries and summaries about him, but if you like that kind of history, it was kind of interesting.
I bought this puzzle because 1. I love these wacky medieval era artworks and 2. this looks to be a vintage little souvenir puzzle from the Bodleian Library. I’ll post a couple photos below this paragraph of the side of the box, one side has the title of the puzzle/artwork and the second side has a short write up about Marco Polo.
Now this piece, I found a source somewhere saying that it was embroidery? I couldn’t say for sure, but that would definitely be fitting, given my love for the textile arts. I will say that I couldn’t really tell from the puzzle though, unfortunately the puzzle image was pretty unclear. I couldn’t tell if that was age, or maybe the original image wasn’t as defined, or the initial transfer of the image to the puzzle. Each could have been entirely possible!
I love these haircuts! I also wonder how vibrant their robes were in real life during the late 1200s and what dyes might have been used at the time.
I also love the scale depicted here. These swans are enormous! (they also look very angry)
This puzzle was sadly missing five pieces, it was an interesting puzzle to find. The quality was only OK but I am always very curious about these vintage museum or in this case, library souvenir puzzles. Eg. The Vulture Collar puzzle from the Met in 1978 manufactured by Milton Bradley.
428 pieces, missing 5, manufactured by Elmcrown Publicity Ltd. for the Bodleian Library.
thepuzzlesivedone 