The Tangram Book [Hardcover]

Jerry Slocum (Author), Jacob Botermans (Author), Dieter Gebhardt (Author), Monica Ma (Author), Xiaohe Ma (Author), Harold Raizer (Author), Dic Sonneveld (Author), Carla van Splunteren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2003

This first truly comprehensive and beautiful volume on one of the world's most popular and intriguing puzzles comes in two parts. It's an authoritative, lavishly photographed history of Tangrams that reveals the mystery and beauty of this ancient art, and also a masterful introduction to Tangram puzzle-solving, with more than 2,000 all-time puzzles which you can try to solve. This accurate history of this classic Chinese art form comes from a Tangram museum owner and his research team. They discovered many treasures, such as the Tangram sets used by Chinese mathematicians 2,200 years ago to test Pythagorean theorems. You'll see the Tangrams Napoleon played with during his exile. Photos show how to arrange Tangram-shaped antique dinner tables for a variety of themes such as mountain ranges, flower arrangements, and celebration costumes. Among the puzzles for you to solve: "paradoxical pairs" that appear to be identical, but differ in a hard-to-detect detail.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Sterling; First Edition edition (May 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402704135
• ISBN-13: 978-1402704130
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And I thought I knew something about Tangrams..., January 6, 2004

By 

J. Guild (Toronto,Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tangram Book (Hardcover)

I have been solving Tangrams for over 50 years and have amassed a modest collection of Tangrams and books about Tangrams.However,until I found this book,I didn't realize how little I knew about them or how modest my little collection was.Up till now I thought the Penguin publication of Joost Elffers book including 1600 puzzles,plus the packaged set published by Stewart,Tabori & Chang in 1997; the Dover publication of Ronald Read's ;as well as the beautifully packaged sets by Crawford were about all that could be done on the subject.
Not so; Slocum has produced a magnificent book and has created the new definitive book on Tangrams.
I used to think there might be as many as 3000 possible problems.Slocum informs that Harold Raizer studied 104 books and card sets and of the more than 20,000 problems found 5900 different problems published before 1926.
Slocum has covered all the history and separated fact from fiction.He has reviewed all the major publications produced worldwide and included many photographs that nobody could possibly see without visiting museums and private collections around the world.His Bibliography and References is simply amazing with about 250 entries.
On top of that he has given us 1756 problems to work on as well as providing the solutions.Even here ,he hs done a superb job of selecting these promlems from the landmark books published over the years.
The high quality of the printing,color rendering and overall construction mirrors the high quality of the content of the book.
The title "The Tangram Book" tells it all;that's what this book will become.
On behalf of Puzzle lovers,and particulary Tangram lovers,I would like to congratulate Jerry Slocum and Sterling on their brilliant effort.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best tangram book ever!, December 9, 2004

By 

S. Metzler - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tangram Book (Hardcover)

I have lots of tangram books, but the well-illustrated history in this was one of the funnest and most amazing and thought-provoking things I have ever read.

The collection puzzles in the back, where the first known published source of each puzzle is given, is incredibly comprehensive - enough to keep me busy for years! Still, it is mentioned that the authors have found in their research over 5,000 (!) unique sillouettes - more than twice as many as they publish in this year... one wonders if they plan to come out with an encyclopedic collection of ALL of these sillouettes any time soon. I do hope so.

I am terribly grateful for this wonderful work.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE Tangram book to have!, July 4, 2003

By 

Puzzler (Sedona, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tangram Book (Hardcover)

Jerry Slocum and his team have done a fantastic job of pulling ALL the available known information about the Tangram puzzle into one gorgeous book. The research is extensive, the illustrations are plentiful and the pictures are supurb. This is a must-have for anyone interested in this classic seven piece puzzle that has intrigued puzzlers for hundreds of years.