Stave Puzzles | Maker of the World’s Most Coveted Luxury Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles
Handcrafted in Vermont, Stave Puzzles are luxury wooden jigsaw puzzles designed to challenge and delight—with no picture, no straight edges, and only one way to solve.
By Katrina Farmer|Jul 01 2025|
The promise of Vermont-made heirloom-quality Stave wooden jigsaw puzzles? To “torment and tease.”
Photo Credit: Lori PedrickBack in 1974, a pair of entrepreneurs named Steve Richardson and Dave Tibbetts founded a game company after being commissioned by a wealthy Bostonian to create a custom wooden jigsaw puzzle for his wife. They named their Vermont-based company Stave—a combination of their first names—with Richardson assuming the unofficial title of “chief tormentor.” Small New Yorker ads and new customers soon followed, and since then Stave puzzles have made their way to tables in 50 states and 15 different countries.
What makes them so coveted? For starters, none are the same. A dozen makers individually handcraft the cherry-backed puzzles at Stave’s Norwich headquarters. The smallest might require a day to make, while larger editions can take two or more weeks. Edges are typically rounded or scalloped—not straight. The pieces may fit together in multiple combinations, but there’s only one correct placement. Adding to the difficulty, the puzzles come with no reference pictures.
Run today by Paula Tardie and Jennifer Lennox—two longtime employees who bought the company in 2016—Stave has been dubbed by Smithsonian as the “Rolls-Royce of puzzles,” as its wildly challenging creations come with wildly expensive price tags. Custom editions hover around $10,000, while in-stock options currently range from $325 to $7,995. In 1992, a limited-edition eight-foot-long puzzle sold for $8,680 ($21,000 in today’s dollars), earning a Guinness World Record as the world’s most expensive puzzle.
The numbers haven’t deterred Stave’s clientele, including repeat customer Bill Gates and the late Queen Elizabeth II, who liked to give Stave puzzles as gifts. Other fans boast the last names Bush, DuPont, Mellon, and Rockefeller, to mention a few.
Stave’s designs even allow for personalization—names, birth dates, a silhouette of a beloved pet, for example. But one element unites all Stave puzzles: the inclusion of its clown mascot, a single piece that may or may not fit, celebrating the company’s enduringly playful spirit.
This feature was originally published as “Vex Factor” in the July/August 2025 issue of Yankee.
