Mission Doctor

This is another very interesting plywood jigsaw puzzle which, despite its apparently un-Holtzapffel looking appearance is I believe from their factory. The box, with its Walker & Holtzapffel (Retail) ltd., label is certainly theirs, and the description on the box matches the puzzle itself. It is the cutting which is decidedly atypical, bearing more similarity to the Delta style of fellow London-based AVN Jones, than the Holtzapffel norm. For those of you familiar with Tom Tyler's book on twentieth century British jigsaw puzzles, you will find on page 48 a Holtzapffel identified puzzle of the Bibby Liner Approaching Rangoon, from their Figure=It=Out range, the cutting style of which very closely matches that of the Mission Doctor puzzle featured here. My own version of the Bibby Liner puzzle is more conformist to the perceived Holtzapffel standard.
Also of interest here is the quality of the cutting of the puzzle itself, which whilst relatively simple in technique, has a smoothness in the cut and a finish on the reverse side of the puzzle which seemingly implies the use of top-class equipment, certainly not the case with the more mass-produced AVN Jones puzzles.
My theory is that one of the AVN Jones cutters perhaps went to join Holtzapffel in the c1932 era and imparted his own cutting technique, albeit on their superior equipment, also probably having been the same cutter as the previously mentioned Figure=It=Out example. If this were indeed the case, he was probably eventually retrained to be compliant with the Holtzapffel standards of colour line-cutting etc.
See also the Victory Gold Box Super-Cut puzzle Healing the Sick, for another use of this same print.

Artist: Unsigned
Date: c1932
Brand: Holtzapffel
Material: Plywood
Nationality: British-England
Pieces: 700
Size: 17 1/4" x 23 3/4"
Theme: Eastern
Title: Mission Doctor