A puzzling
affair
by Jilliana
Ranicar-Breese
I made a
living for 15 years dealing in dexterity puzzles.
I was introduced by the retired diplomat Eileen
Scott to her colleague, the industrialist and
fellow puzzle collector, Edward Horden who asked
me to supply him.
For 15 years I scoured Paris, London and other
parts of the world for modern and vintage puzzles.
I entered his world
of inventions. He would come to my house and
marvel at what I had found for him. He kept me
alive financially and I gave him a first class
service.
I expanded his collecting to include paper
optical puzzles such as persistent of vision,
PreCinema objects and even conjuring tricks which
involved modern puzzles.
Edward worked out every puzzle and finally
collaborated with my magician publisher husband
to republish Professor Hoffman’s fascinating
book ‘Puzzles old and new’.
When I was on honeymoon in Bodrum, Turkey in 1983,
I went into the local toy shop and bought every
single Turkish plastic puzzle in the shop. The
shop owner thought I had lots of children! Again
in Pythogoria, Samos, on a Greek holiday, I
discovered the ceramic local specialty. A cup
that was filled with water based on the
Pythagorean theory. I bought 20 because Edward
was part of an international puzzle society and
exchanged puzzles worldwide.
He bought devinettes, paper prints with hidden
images, mechanical paper with tags one pulled et
al. Through my good work I introduced Edward to
the world of advanced Ephemera collecting. We had
a good happy arrangement for 15 years.
But in 1986 I set up an archive/picture/photo
library I called Retrograph. I was tired of
getting up at dawn hunting for Edward and I
lapsed with my personal service. Edward was not
happy and wanted an explanation. I told him I had
started a new business and no longer had the
energy or inclination to continue looking for him.
Edward was annoyed and threatened that he would
get up at dawn and drive from Hertfordshire to
Portobello and find my sources. That meant I had
to rely on Paris and New York to find new puzzles.
Over the years my business dwindled as my energy
and sales increased with Retrograph.
Edward never asked how my business was going.
Like a child, he was obviously jealous and our
relationship broke down.
One day he phoned out of the blue to say he had
pancreatic cancer. I was in shock. He told me he
had bequeathed his valuable collection to fellow
collector James Dalgety to create a puzzle museum
in Devon. He still continued to search in
Portobello market. Collecting kept him alive, a
reason to live. One day he came to see me and
thank me finally for my good work. Something he
had never done. Edward died 6 months later but
his puzzles, his life’s work, is now The
Puzzle Museum and his collection although not in
his name, lives on in Devon near Exeter.
Long love the mystery of the baffling puzzle!
Written
8/3/25 in Nightingale.
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