Par Company and puzzles were the creation of Frank Ware and John Henriques, New York, NY. Both men were thrown out of work in the early 1930's by the Great Depression and started to make puzzles to rent and to sell. Even though the puzzle industry was rushing to make puzzles as cheaply as possible, they succeeded in building a customer base willing to pay extra to rent and buy top quality puzzles. Bored by the artwork of that day, they used prints of modern art and favored striking travel, theater and advertising posters. Ware, the better artist designed hundreds of unique figure pieces while Henriques, the faster and more intricate cutter, perfected special cutting techniques such as dropouts within the puzzle and elevated forms of irregular edges. Their “signature piece” became the seahorse with at least one and usually two in each puzzle. Many puzzles also had two sea horses gold stenciled onto the surface. Custom-made puzzles featured the owners' monograms and significant dates and figure pieces appropriate to the owners' interests. Each box label listed a "Par time" to assemble the puzzle: the time it took Henriques, a VERY FAST puzzler to assemble it. As they became too busy in later years to assemble each puzzle, the par time became an estimate. Boxes used were plain black boxes with no guide pictures; a puzzle number was listed only for their rental Pars. They operated a lending library for over 30 years, ending in the 1960's, periodically culling their rental collection by selling off worn Pars much cheaper than new Pars. Henriques died in 1972, and Ware gave the entire business to his apprentice, Arthur Gallagher, who moved the business to Long Island. In the early 1980's, Gallagher retired from the business and turned it over to John Madden who still operates it today from his home in Wantagh, Long Island.
This Par puzzle was personalized as a gift for an intended sweetheart with the affectionate nickname, "Puss," cut into puzzle center. It also has the Par sea horse, and wonderful irregular edge cutting around entire puzzle. Picture appeared on the cover of the Feb. 15, 1936 Saturday Evening Post drawn by the preeminent 20th century illustrator, J. C. Leyendecker. Par time: 45 minutes, awfully fast!
Another travel poster, this one for Spain and Iberia, turned into a terrific puzzle by Par. Cut partially along color lines with 42 figure pieces including the usual 2 sea horses signature pieces, and the intended owner's initials, "RMS", (unidentified). By cutting away lettering on the poster, Par created dramatic edges.
Terrific colors; ominous scene with black panther hanging over water hole. Extremely challenging to assemble as green colors seem to be everywhere. Cut partially along color lines with 38 figure pieces including 2 sea horses, the Par “signature” pieces, and "DAK", the initials of the intended owner (not identified). Interesting artwork and cutting combine to make a superb puzzle. Artist unknown but, frequently the artist’s name was cut off at the bottom to “size” a puzzle.
Impressionist view of Henley, England crew racing by artist, Raoul Dufy with wonderful colors. Some color line cutting, 36 figure pieces. Our son, Scott, rowed in the Brown boat which won the Ladies Plate at Henley in 1984 (we witnessed it), and coached the Dartmouth boat which won the same plate in 1994. A rare double achievement. Naturally, we collect puzzles with rowing (crew) scenes. Par Time: 9:05.
Beauty, color and action, all in one puzzle! Cut in 1930/40 period with 23 figure pieces including 2 sea horses but no color line cuttin). Par time is 4:30. No personalization but wonderful artwork.
Cut with 26 figure pieces, including 2 sea horses, the "signature" piece of the 2 partners, Frank Ware and John Henriques. Par time is 4:55. Artist is Curt Nystrom. The wonderful colors, especially reds, and the red border makes this a visually striking Christmas puzzle.
An extraordinary puzzle with colorful graphics by Hermann Kosel (1951) for a travel poster for Austria (title cut from bottom when puzzle made). Note drop out areas in water section to create 6 marching band figures reflecting band in scene. Also note dropout area in green area creating monogram "RH" for Ruth Hodgkins, the original owner; higher than normal number of Par-type figure pieces (37) including 2 Par sea horses; and gold stenciled sea horses in upper left. From the collection of 32 Par puzzles of the former Ruth & Ted Hodgkins, Worcester, MA which we bought after their deaths.
Challenging Par puzzle with highly irregular edges, drop-outs, 28 figure pieces including initials "DEP" of the original owner, Dwight E. Priest, Worcester, MA, and 2 sea horses, Par signature pieces. We had no idea what the puzzle looked like so had to assemble most of the sections before we could fit them together. The original label is missing, so I based the title on a tongue twister, I learned as a youth (long, long ago).