Rawson's Seeds

Rawson's Seeds is a reproduction of a chromolithograph of the cover the 1888 Rawson Seed Catalog. Quite a few seed companies of that era included beautiful prints in their catalogs that are considered works of art today. The colors on this puzzle are very bright. Some of the figurals are items in the picture while others follow the theme of the picture. From the puzzle picture itself, there are two flowers, a black raspberry, some strawberries and grapes, two ears of corn, and a large, bright green cabbage. Some of these larger figurals have more than one piece. Additional figurals that go with the theme of the picture are a girl watering the garden, a colorful red butterfly, and a bunny just waiting to eat the carrots. The picture also includes our signature piece, a stylized iris, which is signed on the back with the date it was cut and the authentication number of the puzzle. The cutting style is continuous heart .

This example puzzle has more than usual number of tricks. All but one of the corners are disguised but there are four additional fake corners. Many edge pieces are disguised, but the orange and white plaid area with the blue letters was color-line-cut (CLC) with just enough knobs to be interlocking. There are plenty of straight pieces to keep you guessing which ones are the real edges.

Only a few of these pieces are edges. There are other edge pieces in this section that are not shown, but they look totally irregular.

The wood on this puzzle is particularly nice. It is 1/4" 3-ply walnut veneer with a poplar core. The core is void-free (no holes in the middle) and the walnut has a lustrous, rich dark grain. It has been finished the old-fashioned way, but hand, with multiple coats of oil for color and shellac for texture.