Following the last puzzle review for the Ravensburger jigsaw puzzle, here comes another puzzle review post! This time, being influenced by some of my friends, I got a Cavallini Papers & Co’s vintage puzzle. As a science nerd, I got the Periodic Chart 1,000 pieces one. 😉
Cavallini Papers & Co. Brand Introduction
Established in 1989 in San Francisco, Cavallini Papers & Co. started with producing calendars, then gradually expanded their business to other paper-made gifts and stationery. They also published the Vintage Puzzle series of jigsaw puzzles, which comes with 500 and 1,000 piece versions. And a poster version for most of the images is also available.
Cavallini Papers & Co. 1,000 Piece Vintage Jigsaw Puzzle Quality and Review
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting too much from the Cavallini puzzle. From the pictures, it looks like they are going for a vintage, trendy vibe with thin puzzle pieces so I thought it might just be some random brand that wants to stick its finger into the jigsaw puzzle market. But my experience with them does exceed the expectation! Let me share my thoughts with you on this Cavallini jigsaw puzzle, piece by piece.
- Piece count: 1,000 pieces
- Dimensions of the box: 5 x 5 x 10 inches /12 x 12 x 25 cm (cylinder)
- Dimensions of the completed puzzle: 20 x 28 inches / 55 x 70 cm
- Puzzle piece thickness: about 1.8 mm
- How long does it take to complete: 7 hr 10 min (This is how long it took me to complete this jigsaw puzzle in my first go.)
- Click me to see its price on Amazon*
This vintage puzzle series comes with many different images. You could probably find the most comprehensive list on their official site, but you cannot buy them directly from there. So you might want to check out the bookstores that they collaborate with or other e-commerce shops like Amazon* if you want to buy them online. There are a lot of beautiful, vintage images across different themes.
Packaging
I have to give it an A+ straight up for its packaging! The cylinder box is special and well made (and the image printed on the outside seems to be specifically designed for the box – it’s not exactly the same as what’s printed on the puzzle). There is a thin canvas bag inside the box that contains all the pieces. From the paddings for the shipping box, cylinder box, canvas bag, to the puzzle pieces, there is a consistent aesthetic to it with no plastic at all! Elegant, well-made, minimalistic, and eco-friendly. I kept saying “wow” when unboxing this puzzle. (Yes, I literally said “wow” when I was in my room, alone, multiple times.)
Unboxing Experience
After unboxing, most of the pieces are properly cut. There are still some connected pieces, but it’s very easy to break them down. There is almost no visible puzzle dust! Maybe that’s why they can put the pieces directly in the canvas bag without using plastics. But during the first half of puzzling, it felt like I was touching something that’s very dusty. I guess it might be some very fine puzzle dust. I don’t like that feeling personally, but I won’t stop you if you want to treat it as part of your “vintage” experience. I believe that dusty feeling will only appear when first doing it though. That shouldn’t be the case for your second or third round if you’re redoing the puzzle.
Puzzle Pieces
Then here are some close-ups of the pieces! Besides packaging, the part that this Cavallini puzzle amazed me the most is its printing. The front of the pieces is smooth with no glaze and no additional texture. But it is super anti-glare!!! I had been doing this puzzle since the afternoon, while the sun was shining through my window from many different angles, all the way into the night when I turned on my desk lamp, there was no reflection or glare at all! (Like how is that even possible! Did they use some magical ink?) It feels so good when you don’t have to dodge around just to see the right color! The thickness of the pieces is not as thin as I thought. It’s medium thickness but feels quite solid. And the back of the pieces is just regular white.
Puzzle pieces are all basic shapes – a square with 4 inward or outward tabs. There are no special pieces, but each piece’s shapes are different enough so that it’s easy to know if you get it right when you try to put pieces together. There were only 2 or 3 times (out of the 1,000 pieces process) when I thought I had a piece that fits then it turned out that’s not the case. It’s also quite sturdy. As I mentioned in the last puzzle review post, I like to redo the puzzles several times so this is important to me. Puzzles made of paper are certainly not as durable as the plastic ones, but this Cavallini one looks strong enough to me so far. I’ve done this puzzle then broken it down once and only a tiny corner of a piece was slightly damaged.
The puzzle is also interlocking closely. It might be slightly looser than the Ravensburger one (Afterall, Cavallini pieces are thinner) but it’s not a huge difference. I was able to move a small section of pieces around once I put them together. They will not split if being moved with a bit of caution. Once the whole puzzle is completed, it can also be lifted wholly for a moment if being extra careful with it. But it will need some glue if you plan to hang it on the wall.
Puzzle Image
As for the image of the puzzle, the Periodic Chart* one I got consists of a lot of texts and has a very scattered color distribution. The difficulty is medium to high for me. It will be quite challenging if you want to complete it without the reference image, and even if you do use the reference, those texts are a bit distracting so it’s still not an easy puzzle to do. For me, it’s a rare experience to do a puzzle where your puzzling speed does not go up when it’s close to the finish line. As a reference, it took me 7 hours and 10 minutes to complete this puzzle. If you want to have a more soothing puzzling experience, they have a Color Wheel one which has some gradient and might be more satisfying to do. (And it’s beautiful, too!)
Although it’s a little challenging, the vintage image has a lot of details to it. They even have the folding mark, faded colors, and small printing ink spots printed.
Conclusion
Overall, I think the quality of Cavallini’s puzzle is above average. It’s worth recommending just for the fact that it’s very (if not completely) anti-glare! Especially if you like their images (and you can consider getting the poster version if you don’t want to do the puzzle lol). Packaging, anti-glare surface, and distinguishable puzzle cuts are all great. The small downsides would be the dusty touch and not being as satisfying as the Ravensburger one (the Cavallini one is already pretty good tbh, it’s just that… Ravensburger is way too good).
And then here is another image that I was tempted to get – the Celestial Chart one:
Last but not least, here are some pictures of the completed puzzle and a timelapse video for your reference. You can see the sunshine moving and my struggle in the final stage of doing this puzzle lol. Thank you so much for reading this long, long post again! If you have any puzzles that you like, would like to recommend, or want to learn more about, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment so I can have an excuse to buy more puzzles! 😉
Description Box
Here’s another puzzle review post if you’re interested! Puzzle Review | Ravensburger Escape Room Jigsaw Puzzle
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