Christmas 2001 - Stewart Coffin Design #182 by John Devost

I originally made copies of this design in 2006 that were offered at Cubicdissection.

This copy features Pieces made from Zebrawood, Canarywood, Padauk, Yellowheart and Black Palm.

Tray is Canarywood with Wenge Slipfeathers.

I’ve recently been revisiting some of Stewart’s tray designs, and this particular design has since been revised in 2018 so I decided to make a few copies, here’s Stewart’s description:

“It didn’t take long for puzzle fans to catch on to the 45-degree rotation, which has also been exploited by others, or even the less common 26.6 degrees of #177-A. So the next step was to change the angle again to arctan 1/3 or 18.4 degrees. I present this puzzle with apology because I prefer not to issue puzzles of this type that are extra difficult (believe it or not), and non-symmetrical as well. Friends usually expect the solutions of my puzzles of this type to be symmetrical, but this one isn’t. 

But it’s most vexing feature is that not a single one of the pieces rests 

comfortably by itself in a corner, or even along a side, so how do you begin? 

I made just a few of these during one holiday season (hence the name) as 

gifts to puzzle experts, who I hope will forgive this departure from what I 

consider the rules of the game.

The original Christmas has two design flaws- a piece duplicated and a 

symmetrical piece. Both flaws have been corrected in this revised 2018 

version. Both versions have only one solution.”

Shipping cost to be determined at close of auction.