John Spilsbury (1739-69) is the man credited with the invention of the dissected puzzle. His were certainly the earliest commercial products of this nature when they appeared in the 1760s. In the 18th century, a more direct focus on the state of childhood led to the publication of both books and games for children. The aim of these was to entertain while teaching. Children were given space, both physical and intellectual, to play and develop. To fill these spaces, commercially produced toys and games became accessible to increasingly well-off middle class parents.
The dissected puzzle was the first of these to become widely available. In essence they were printed paper maps glued onto wood, usually mahogany, and cut into shapes. The idea was that children would learn their geography in a fun way by constructing and deconstructing the maps. This 1767 puzzle, of England and Wales, is one of Spilsbury’s earliest, the others being of the World, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Ireland, and Scotland.