In his book (along with its addendums), entitled "Petits Jeux et Casse Tete de la Belle Epoque"
(Small Games and Puzzles of the Golden Age), Yves Rifaux lists
over 200 French boxed puzzles manufactured during the period between 1878 and 1914.
Rifaux covers many types of puzzles beyond the vintage French tanglements to which this section is devoted, including
for instance many dexterity puzzles.
On first glance, these boxed French wire puzzles seem somewhat ill-formed and flimsy,
but I have found them to be fairly precisely made
and surprisingly robust.
The boxes are frequently
colorful with artistic graphics and entertaining illustrations.
Some people collect vintage French boxed puzzles simply for the box artwork.
Rifaux numbers almost all the puzzles he covers sequentially starting with #1, and though he classifies each
puzzle he does not group them, so they are intermixed by type throughout the numbering scheme.
Also, the body of the book and the addendums describe some puzzles which are not assigned a number in the sequence.
I have managed to collect
photos of almost all of the tanglement puzzles Rifaux mentions, though
I own only those with the name shown in
bold.
In the first portion of the table, I have ordered the puzzles by Rifaux's number.
When we get to those puzzles Rifaux does not cover, I have ordered them alphabetically by name.
There are a few instances where I have not been able to find a picture of the box or puzzle.
Thanks to Sylvie and Gilles Legrand for the use of many photos!
