Bentalls

Bentalls Department Store of Kingston-on-Thames, was built in 1935 and, like Selfidges, Harrods and Gamages etc., included wooden jigsaw puzzles in its product range.
Examples are very scarce and those shown here are branded as Tip-Top picture puzzles. They are quite clearly made to the design of the well known Tippe-Toppe range produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons in the 1930's.
It seems almost certain that Bentalls commissioned Tuck to produce these for them, including the cleverly renamed range name, but not showing the manufacturer name.
Generally the Tippe-Toppe puzzles were much smaller than their Zag-Zaw cousins but, so far those seen which were marketed for the Bentalls store used fine quality prints and are of a good size.

© 2008-2023 David Shearer

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