Coffin’s Dilemma - Stewart Coffin #213-X2 by Mat Nedeljko

Stewart’s cube designs have always piqued my interest, I look to collect them when I can.  This particular design has some nice interlocking movements between the pieces that are reminiscent of Stewart’s iconic ‘Convolution’ but has a much more confusing assembly.  As you can see once it’s assembled it has a very nice appearance especially when using contrasting woods like Mat did in this beautiful copy!

First photo shows the puzzled displayed with an Olivewood Stand from Brian Menold.

I strongly advise you to grab any of Mat’s work at his website Nedeljko WoodWorks

Here’s Mat’s Description:

“STC 213-X2 Coffins Dilemma is one of seven experimental designs which form a six piece interlocking dissection of a 4x4x3 rectangular solid. Finely crafted from Purpleheart and Maple with symmetrical patterns on all six faces this puzzle is a joy to look at and play with. Highly recommended for those that enjoy interlocking cube puzzles.”

Here’s Stewart’s Description from his Compendium:

“Seven experimental interlocking dissections of a 4x4x3 rectangular solid come under this heading. All were made in contrasting fancy woods with symmetrical patterns on all six faces. I don’t know where any of them are now, so once again a drawing must suffice until perhaps one or two 

turn up. The one chosen for the graphic was designated #213-X-2. (X stands for experimental.) It was made from twelve 1x1x2 blocks and 24 cubic blocks of five contrasting woods.”