In Puzzles and Curious Problems, a posthumous collection of puzzles by the English puzzlist Henry E. Dudeney, the following problem appears: “A cabinetmaker had a perfect square of beautiful veneer which he wished to cut into six pieces to form three separate squares, all different sizes. How might this have been done without any waste?”

A pretty puzzle, and yet in its framing the master's mortising chisel had slipped: Just five pieces suffice to form a set of three separate squares. And the number of such sets would fill a large warehouse. Even Dudeney's prototype set requires no more than five pieces, as Dudeney's old American rival Sam Loyd had catalogued more than two decades earlier! Furthermore, displaying his own consummate craftsmanship, Loyd had even preserved a checkerboard pattern in his dissection.