Quintet in ‘F’ is number Stewart Coffin’s design #253 ...
two hundred and fifty three!
And he’s still going!
OK, back to the puzzle in hand - Coffin #253 served as Rosemary
Howbrigg’s Exchange Puzzle at IPP31 in Berlin and as you might expect from the
name it employs five ‘f’-shaped pentominoes in the tray packing puzzle.
Mercifully this time (unlike Lean 2) the tray is
symmetrical, in fact it’s a rhombus so it’s very symmetrical ... however the
pieces aren’t – and there are five of them, which makes building a shape that’s
symmetrical a little tricky...
My copy came from Puzzle Paradise where John Devost has
recently picked up his woodworking tools after a couple of successful
restorations. I tend to keep an eye on Paradise just in case anything
interesting turns up... John’s pretty good about warning folks when he’s put a bunch
of new things up for sale on Paradise, but every now and then one or two new
things will sneak on before he’s had a chance to wing an email around to warn
anyone...
So one day I happened
to spot this particular puzzle appear out of the blue – just a single copy available
with a zebrawood tray and spalted myrtle pieces and I thought it looked terrific
so I snagged it. It arrived less than a week later in perfect condition having
made the journey across from Canada in a padded envelope.
John’s done a super job on this puzzle – the tray has a
floating zebrawood base , the corners are finished off with wenge slipfeathers (one
of his trademark features) and he’s signed and dated the back of the tray.
It’s an excellent little puzzle and the combination of an
odd number of non-symmetrical pieces being fitted into a perfectly symmetrical
tray provides plenty of blind allies to be explored. I got fairly lucky and
managed to stumble upon a solution quite quickly, but I’ve heard of some pretty
mean puzzlers being stumped for quite a while ... but then it IS a Stewart
Coffin design, and you wouldn’t expect any less ... would you?
I'm not a pretty mean puzzler! And I just can't solve it! I've been at it for months!
ReplyDeleteMy copy also came from John - Padauk tray with double Wenge slip feathers and the same spalted Myrtle pieces. Looks beautiful and, having found an unintended solution, I can at least store it flat!! I'm just hopeless at packing puzzles - even blowing on it hasn't helped at all!
Kevin
Puzzlemad
Did he add the little poem with it? That was a big help!
ReplyDelete...not sure I've seen a poem for Quintet in 'f' ... saw the one for Octet in 'f' though...(?) - allard
DeleteGood day to you and compliments for this wonderful blog.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could be so kind to send me or to point me to the solution of this puzzle (quintet in f)
I thank you in advance, best regards
Sandro Aliverti
alivertis (at) tin.it
Email sent... :-)
Delete