{"product_id":"poissons-by-louis-renard-premium-wooden-jigsaw-puzzle","title":"Fantastical Fish by Louis Renard 1719 - Premium Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"waww-product-description\"\u003e\n\u003ch1\u003ePoissons, écrevisses et crabes — Wooden Jigsaw Puzzle\u003c\/h1\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLouis Renard was a spy. Not a naturalist, not a painter — a French Huguenot refugee working for the British Crown out of Amsterdam. In 1719, he published what became the first color-illustrated book of fish ever printed. He'd never been to the Moluccas. Most of the creatures in it don't look quite like anything that actually lives there. One of them is a mermaid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e📖 The Story Behind This Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePThe full title translates to \"Fishes, crayfishes and crabs, of diverse colors and extraordinary forms, which are found around the islands of the Moluccas and on the coasts of southern lands.\" The 100 plates contain 460 hand-colored copper engravings — and Renard published the work without ever leaving the Netherlands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book is dedicated to George I, and the title page describes the publisher as \"Louis Renard, Agent de Sa Majesté Britannique.\" His role as spy was apparently not particularly secret — he used it as a marketing tool.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe illustrations came largely from Samuel Fallours, a Dutch soldier stationed in Ambon with the Dutch East India Company, who painted drawings from life over nearly thirty years. Renard copied them, added his editorial hand, and put his name on the title page. The book becomes gradually more surreal as the reader progresses. Approximately 9% of the species depicted are completely fantastical. Across both volumes: 415 fishes, 41 crustaceans, two stick insects, a dugong, and, in a final foldout, a solitary mermaid.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eAccording to ichthyologist Theodore Pietsch, Fallours likely included elements of the fantastical in his drawings in order to attract the European collectors who purchased his works — embellishments ranging from artificially bright and randomly applied colors to total fabrications.\u003cspan class=\"inline-flex\" data-state=\"closed\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe result was either a masterwork of natural history or an elaborate fabrication — and for 300 years, historians have been unsettled by how little that distinction matters. The book sold. The images stuck.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e🧩 Why These Plates Work as Puzzles\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eLook at the plates shown here. The left plate arranges its fish in a careful column — a rosy hogfish at the top radiating spines, a geometric striped specimen mid-page, a sunburst yellow-and-teal fish near the bottom that no marine biologist has ever fully matched to a living species. The right plate goes stranger: a broad, paddle-shaped creature covered in red and blue spots, a fish with a body like a gourd and stripes that belong on a carnival tent, specimens so boldly colored they look like someone described a reef to an illustrator who had never seen water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eSorting these pieces is an exercise in controlled disorientation. The colors are vivid and distinct — the reds don't bleed into the oranges, the teals hold their own against the yellows — but Fallours invented his palette freely, which means nothing matches what you expect from memory. You're sorting by a color logic that belongs entirely to one Dutch soldier's imagination, three centuries ago, in a garrison on the other side of the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🎁 Who Gets One of These\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA few specific kinds of people end up with this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e✔️ \u003cstrong\u003eThe natural history collector with a thing for early printed science\u003c\/strong\u003e — You know the difference between Seba's \u003cem\u003eThesaurus\u003c\/em\u003e and Renard's plates. Owning a piece of this particular book, even at puzzle scale, means something.\u003cbr\u003e✔️ \u003cstrong\u003eThe ichthyologist or marine biologist who can name what Fallours got wrong\u003c\/strong\u003e — The anatomical liberties here aren't random. Spotting them while assembling is its own kind of game.\u003cbr\u003e✔️ \u003cstrong\u003eThe print collector who can't afford a 1719 original\u003c\/strong\u003e — Renard's actual plates sell at auction for thousands per folio. The image on this puzzle is sourced from the same copper engravings.\u003cbr\u003e✔️ \u003cstrong\u003eThe person who already owns one unusual thing on their wall\u003c\/strong\u003e — Not decorating a room from scratch. Adding one more object that requires explanation.\u003cbr\u003e✔️ \u003cstrong\u003eThe gift-giver who's done with giving forgettable things\u003c\/strong\u003e — Specifically buying for someone who knows enough about historical illustration to be genuinely surprised by this one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eStrong occasion fit: a birthday for someone who collects antique prints or natural history books; a retirement gift for a marine scientist or academic historian. The subject is specific enough that it only lands for the right person — which is exactly when it lands hardest.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🧩 Puzzle Specifications\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e✔️ Precision laser-cut wooden pieces\u003cbr\u003e✔️ 3mm MDF core — rigid, warp-resistant, built to last\u003cbr\u003e✔️ UV printing directly on wood — no paper laminate, no peeling\u003cbr\u003e✔️ Traditional grid-cut design\u003cbr\u003e✔️ Handcrafted wooden keepsake box included\u003cbr\u003e✔️ Made to order — ships in 3–4 weeks\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e💎 Why This Puzzle Lasts\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWooden puzzles from the brands you've probably seen run $300 to $500. The craft justifies it. WAWW gets to the same materials through direct manufacturing and no wholesale chain — made to order, no warehouse, no markup passed through three hands before yours. The price difference is structural, not a corner cut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 3mm MDF core is why a piece picked up in ten years still clicks into place cleanly. Cardboard absorbs humidity and warps; MDF doesn't. The rigidity also means the pieces separate cleanly when you're sorting — no soft edges, no flex. UV printing goes directly onto the wood surface, with no paper laminate sitting between the image and the substrate. On a piece with Renard's saturated hand-colored palette, that matters: the color is bonded to the material, not sitting on top of it waiting to peel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe traditional grid cut keeps solving honest — no arbitrary piece shapes, no gimmicks, just the image broken into its natural components. After you're done, the pieces go back into a handcrafted wooden box that's built to keep them. Most people keep the box on a shelf. It holds up to that. Made to order means your puzzle doesn't exist until you buy it — no inventory sitting in a climate-controlled warehouse degrading slowly. The three-to-four week lead time is the cost of that, and most buyers say it's worth it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WAWW Puzzles","offers":[{"title":"300 Pcs | 23 x 15 inches \/ Pink","offer_id":45989451333820,"sku":"RL-CRU-149-300-23x15","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"300 Pcs | 23 x 15 inches \/ Yellow","offer_id":46002379194556,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"500 Pcs | 23 x 15 inches \/ Pink","offer_id":45989451366588,"sku":"RL-CRU-149-500-23x15","price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"500 Pcs | 23 x 15 inches \/ Yellow","offer_id":46002379227324,"sku":null,"price":130.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"500 Pcs | 31 x 23 inches \/ Pink","offer_id":45989451399356,"sku":"RL-CRU-149-500-31x23","price":145.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"500 Pcs | 31 x 23 inches \/ Yellow","offer_id":46002379260092,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"1000 Pcs | 31 x 23 inches \/ Pink","offer_id":45989451432124,"sku":"RL-CRU-149-1000-31x23","price":165.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"1000 Pcs | 31 x 23 inches \/ Yellow","offer_id":46002379292860,"sku":null,"price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0522\/4369\/3756\/files\/renard-poissons-pink_2.jpg?v=1772750799","url":"https:\/\/www.whatawoodwork.com\/products\/poissons-by-louis-renard-premium-wooden-jigsaw-puzzle","provider":"WAWW Puzzles","version":"1.0","type":"link"}