Conversely, perhaps puzzles sold in Japan are touted as products of Yankee ingenuity, and if so, probably they are closer to the truth. Patent files are one of our most important historical resources on puzzles. There are presently about 1000 patents of bone fide puzzles filed in the US Patent Office and about the same number in the British Patent Office. The oldest US patent is dated 1863. If the filing of patents is any accurate indication, then many of the classic designs familiar to us today, including various burrs and dissected blocks, date from the late 1800s.
Puzzle interest picks up again after World War II and has been going strong ever since.
To be entirely satisfactory, such puzzles should be made to close tolerances, and the only practical way to achieve this is with specialized power woodworking machinery and suitable jigs. Power woodworking tools did not come into common use until the mid 19th century. Note that most ancient games and pastimes use pebbles, beans, scratch marks on the ground, and other such things readily at hand. To say that most geometrical puzzles are less than 200 years old requires qualification. They are all based on mathematical principles known ages ago, which in turn have roots going even further back, finally fading away into the unknown of the past.