Welcome,

This webpage is a present:
A present to my parents wedding anniversary and my father’s sixtieth birthday. Both my parents have dedicated a part of their lives to collecting and to the study of old jigsaw puzzles. Things started when my father was puzzling with the old puzzles that were at both at his parents, and my mothers' parents’ home. He liked the strange shapes and the family, gathering around a lamp lit table, fitting pieces together. From one thing came another. My parents got married, got kids and got some old jigsaw puzzles.

Collecting
On holidays my family likes to travel to the nice and old cities of Western Europe. Especially the Dutch and German. And as it happens, old cities hide lots of antic shops. In some of these shops in old boxes, in closets and under tables are hidden old jigsaw puzzles. And for some odd reason my parents found them, bought them and so their collection grew. This caused long nights of puzzling and wondering about these strange shattered pictures. Questions were born such as: "Who made this puzzle?", "Why are some pieces shaped like animals?", "These two puzzles look alike, are they sawn by the same person?".

Study
As more and more questions were born, some of them were answered. The puzzling thing about answers is that they seem to bring lots of questions with them. My parents wanted answers and they found them. Clues were hidden in little details: a smudged pencil strike became a date, a small logo got a name and piece by piece the history of jigsaw puzzles got shape. Soon the notes my parents made became small piles, then they became big piles an then they needed sorting. And so a study was born. The puzzles in the attic were piling up as well. And while my parents kept on with their work, people started asking them questions about were a puzzle came from, or how old it was. Soon, my parents found themselves organizing their first exhibition and writing their first book about puzzle history.
Many exhibitions and some publications followed. Last year my parents even published their second book.

Sharing
As I see my parents working, I wished that they could share their knowledge and their collection. This website can help them with that. Iit is my intention that it will become possible for other people to contribute to their work as well. I will keep building this website until it becomes an interactive puzzle portal and I hope my parents will be glad to give it its content. But more importantly, I hope that you, the visitor, will appreciate the information and the work of my parents:

Geert Bekkering & Betsy Bekkering - Hoekstra

Harry Bekkering