Let’s Find Out If 1967 Vintage Jigsaw Puzzle Is Complete

• Vintage jigsaw puzzle discovered at a library book sale over a year ago.
• Features a fishing fleet at port in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
• Surprisingly, a fun and challenging puzzle that will take hours to solves.

Bought this vintage jigsaw puzzle back in spring of 2019 at a library book sale. Found it tucked away in a back room of a back room. The puzzle was in a sorry condition. The puzzle pieces were gritty and covered in dusts and dried leaves. We were not confident that all the pieces were there, especially with a torn box. However, for fifty cents it was worth a try. We removed the dust and dried leaves and stored the puzzle pieces in a plastic bag for safekeeping. However, we forgot about it, because soon afterwards we acquired a massive eighty seven puzzle collection. However, during this year’s shelter in place, we rediscovered the puzzle. Decided to solo solve the puzzle as a project.

Title: Fishing Comrades, part of Kent brand
Pieces: 1000
Artist: Unknown
Company: Milton Bradley
Year Printed: 1967

Build

Since, this is a sister puzzle to Castle of Chiron, it is a safe assumption that the puzzle pieces and cuts are similar. Some of the internal pieces could be cut like edge pieces. Therefore, the sorting plan is not to sort by edges but to sort by the major distinctive patterns first, such as the light blue sky, the rippling water, boat’s green hull, and the dock warehouse. The remainder pile consisted of the warehouse’s wooden pillar, boat masts and deck. For the build, started on the outside distinctive areas and moved in towards the center. For example, the green hull, warehouse, and rippling water were built first, then the boat mast and pillars in the center. The sky was solved last.

Surprisingly, all the pieces were there. Completed, the puzzle looks great except for gritty streaks of dirt. The quality of the puzzle pieces is still good. Considering, it is over sixty years old, the pieces interlocked well, thicker than modern day puzzles, and has a good feel to it.

Difficulty

Round puzzles are inherently more challenging than rectangular shaped puzzles, because the cut and shape of the individual pieces are different. In the end, Fishing Comrade is very challenging as it took me almost seven and half hours (7:23:36) to complete while referencing the picture. It is a good challenge as it requires a methodical approach to make steady progress. The more frustrating part for me was the wooden boat mast and pillars.

Overall, Milton Bradley via the Kent brand made pretty good puzzles. Sixty years later the puzzles are still holding up fairly well if taken care of. If you have any Kent round puzzles that you want to exchange, let us know in the comments.