Scientific Instruments

A globe turns, and a border that no longer exists turns with it. Scientific instruments, globes and games come from Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. Terrestrial globes from the United States, Germany and France chart the world as it was drawn in the twentieth century, some lit from within, others made as banks and paperweights; changing borders date them as surely as any label. Chinese mahjong sets with fitted boxes of bone and bamboo tiles, chess sets, playing cards and game boards sit beside the congkak boards of Indonesia and the mancala boards of Ivory Coast and Tanzania, carved with rows of cups for seeds or shells.

Paper, tin, wood, brass and bone carry the patina of use. A globe on a library table, a mancala board on a coffee table: maps, measures and play, none of it in a hurry.