Also a very useful ploy in communal living for keeping your special belongings to yourself. Only if the contents were taken out and the chest given very close scrutiny would they be able to detect other compartments for secreting valuables or contraband. If Government Tax Officials, Police or anyone you wished to deceive, opened the chest they would find only blankets and clothing stored in the largest and most obvious compartment. But more commonly, and possibly more accurately, these chests got the name Smugglers Chest because they contain hidden compartments that can only be opened by means of concealed mechanisms.
In India the Damchiya is a traditional dowry or blanket box. Out in the field high ranking officers could hide valuables in secret drawers that needed knowledge of the secret mechanisms to open them, all under the disguise of a normal writing slope. The table appears to have a single center drawer but really has 3 hidden drawers disguised could definitely be considered as a puzzle box.Īnother example of functional furniture that had hidden compartments used to securely store items were the Military Campaign boxes of the 1800s. Its generally accepted that many of these secret opening boxes had their origins, or the idea may have come from, furniture designs that date even earlier than these first puzzles.įine furniture like the mechanical desk produced by Alfred Emmanuel Louis Beurdeley, a cabinetmaker from Paris, in the late 1880’s built on an already strong tradition started more than 100 years before by Jean-Francois Oeben. It was made and sold by A.W.Gamage of London Limited in what they called their Magical Department and the challenge was to see if you could open it and get to the matches and the striker. Included in that book was a puzzle called the Psycho Match-Box.
In 1893 Professor Hoffman wrote a book which illustrated and described hundreds of mechanical puzzles. They were first made in the 1860’s and continued to be made right up until the early 1960’s. Usually with a hidden key the puzzler had to find the secret panels that might hide the keyhole.
Less famous, at least outside of some dedicated puzzle collectors, are those puzzle boxes developed in the early 1900’s in the UK and Europe.Īlso made as souvenirs for tourists in Sorrento and Naples in Italy were beautifully decorated wooden puzzle boxes in the style of a stack of books. Called himitsu-bako, they are intriguing and with their mosaic style of decorative woodwork they have been popular souvenirs for the tourists visiting the Hakone region of Japan for over 200 years. Most well known is the Japanese Secret box. Puzzles for Big Kids and very big kids too! (6).
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