Four Marbles is a wooden puzzle from Vinco, the workshop of Czech designer and craftsman Václav Obšivač in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm. Six pieces in contrasting woods form a polyhedral body with openings in its faces, through which you can see the four balls held at its centre. The challenge is to take it apart and put it back together with the balls in place.

• BrandVinco
• DesignerVáclav Obšivač
• TypeTake-apart
• MaterialContrasting woods
• Pieces6 (plus 4 balls)
• Size90 mm

Design

Obšivač started building puzzles in the late 1990s and today has a catalogue of hundreds of designs, almost all handmade in his workshop from fruit-tree woods and other species. Four Marbles combines light and dark tones in pieces with sloping faces, so the finished puzzle is also eye-catching as a display piece.

The four balls aren’t just decorative: they fill the central cavity, and assembling the puzzle means taking them into account alongside the six wooden pieces.

Skill level

Vinco places it at level 3 on its scale, which goes up to 5 and 5+, putting it in the middle range. It’s a good choice for anyone who has already solved a simple wooden puzzle and wants a somewhat bigger challenge without going as far as the workshop’s most demanding models.