Jigsaw puzzle:Boss of the Road

Philadelphian George W. Fiss and his nephew, G.W. Fiss Jr., both cut plywood-based jigsaw puzzles during the first wave of jigsaw puzzle popularity, in the early years of 20th century America. The puzzles both men cut are quite difficult to assemble. The elder Fiss utilized color-line cutting and similarly-shaped pieces to add to the difficulty. The younger Fiss employed both these methods but often went even further. He often based puzzles on prints with large areas of solid color and cut elaborate designs in these areas with very similar shapes. Like all adult puzzles from this era, no picture of the completed image accompanied the puzzle, and the titles were often deliberately misleading. George W. Fiss's puzzle notebook (also in the Strong's collection) shows that they cut a total of 114 puzzles between 1909 and 1921 and loaned them to family and friends.