Views of Paris-Le Petit-Pont and Notre Dame

350 piece semi-interlocking plywood jigsaw puzzle, estimated to be of c1950's manufacture and made in France for the British market. The box-base carries a partial Harrods price label and the puzzle label carries the letter "H". My initial thoughts were that this initial was and identifier for Harrod stock but I have since seen the same letter "H" appearing on puzzles from French stores too. See the huge and magnificent Reading Wycliffe's Bible for another such example.

As is quite typical of the Royal range, this puzzle features colour line-cutting, along with a combination of push-fit and semi-interlocking pieces, set within an interlocking border.

The base label quotes the subject as a Views of Paris puzzle and is now known to be one of at least two different subjects. See Le Pont Saint-Michel et le Palais de Justice for the other example. Both feature wonderful artwork, attributed to the little-researched Canadian artist G.A. Dumarais. I am now aware of at least seven similarly themed studies by this artist, all featuring Parisienne bridges, so hopefully more puzzle examples will turn up!

This particular puzzle example came to me with a few issues, namely two missing pieces and one badly chewed one. All were outside the main subject area and due to this being predominantly plain, I experimented with different levels of tea-staining to try and recreate the colour, as opposed to modern paints. This was my first such trial and I was very pleased with the result!

Artist: Dumarais, G.A.
Date: c1950's
Brand: Vera
Material: Plywood
Nationality: France
Pieces: 350
Range: Royal Vera
Series: Views of Paris
Size: 12 1/4" x 10"
Theme: Churches-Cathedrals
Title: Views of Paris-Le Petit-Pont and Notre Dame