London: Rob.t Sayer, Map and Printseller, 1, Oct.r…. (Circa 1785-90.). A partly hand-coloured engraving mounted on mahogany, and backed with plain paper, cut loosely to the shape of the coastline of England and Wales, but showing some details in the Dover Straits etc. Contained in the original oak box, with the key sheet, a square engraving bearing the imprint of Sayer mounted on the reverse of the lid, and printed label, with some loss to a blank area, on the upper lid. The pieces are interlocking. Other than the loss of one tiny lug (an area of sea) the dissected map is in exceptionally fine and complete condition. Dissected maps, from the first period of the English jigsaw are extremely rare. They were designed to teach children geography, and are one of the earliest examples of educational toys. Hannas records only one example of this dissection (author collection), but it has significant differences. The Hannas example is presented as a square with a cartouche of a coach and four and, beneath the imprint two riders galloping. The date on the box label is ‘1st Jany. 1786.’ The pieces in the Hannas copy are not interlocking. It is difficult to determine which dissection precedes the other. It may be that they were produced at almost exactly the same time, but using different stock sheets.