Meet 79-year-old Jerry Gretzinger, a very methodical worker. For 50 years now he has been creating a map of a fictional world, and not just any, fold-it-up-and-shove-it-in-the-glove-compartment map; spreading over more than 2,500 sheets of A4 paper, Jerry copies and adds to the imagined landscape each day in his coffee break, deciding which sheet he will work on according to which card he draws from a specially customised deck. To say that the artist is completely immersed in his alternate reality would be an understatement; as the map grows he creates “airports, high courts, capital buildings, railroad stations, cemeteries, commercial blocks” to provide for the population, all of which information is then logged into a corresponding spreadsheet on his computer. Similarly, the colour of paint he uses represents different altitudes, and to prevent the map from becoming purely representational he also adds tickets, photographs, magazine cuttings, drawings and other bits and pieces and adds them to existing pages to create a collage effect. He explains: "I estimate that I have averaged 20 minutes a day over 30 years. I stopped working on this project in about 1983, and it was stored in my attic until 2003 when my son, Henry, found it. He brought the box down to me and said, "’Hey, Dad! What is this? And can I have it?’ I got re-inspired and took up working on it every day… So I have worked on this for a total of 219,000 minutes. If I worked eight hours a day that would come to 456.25 days or 1 year and 3 months. To have “wasted” 15 months of my 70 years and nine months doesn’t seem too bad." Squeezing the details of this life-long project into a short post simply doesn’t do it justice – if you’re still curious about how this incredibly routine-driven and ambitious artist has created an alternate universe from his basement studio, watch Gregory Whitmore’s brilliant short detailing his process above.

$50

Taste of Honey - Boogie Oogie Oogie

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An astronomical board game, folded into cardboard slip case, entitled 'Science in Sport, or the Pleasures of Astronomy; A New & Instructive Pastime. Revised & approved by Mrs. Bryan; Blackheath', 'Published, December 17th 1804, by the Proprietor, John Wallis, No. 16, Ludgate Street, London:____ of whom may be had Science in Sport or the Pleasure of NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, an Entertaining Game.' The game is based on the traditional Game of the Goose, which was adapted to a wide range of themed boards, many produced by John Wallis, one of the leading publishers of board games in the early 19th century. Margaret Bryan (fl. 1795-1816) ran a girl's school in Blackheath and was author of a number of popular works on science (ZBA4475 is her portrait), and Wallis evidently felt that her association with this game would be a testament to its accuracy, as well as highlighting its suitability for girls' education. The board has 35 numbered 'squares' depicting astronomical objects, instruments and principles as well as astronomers (Ptolemy, Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Copernicus, Isaac Newton) and moral lessons (e.g. a studious and idle boy, the county gaol and an army volunteer). One square shows the man in the moon as an example of ignorance in astronomy. By spinning a 'te-totum', players can travel over the board, the object being to spin numbers up to 35 and reach the final 'square', depicting Flamsteed House: 'Whoever first arrives here is to take the title of Astronomer Royal'. The game involves much rote learning as well as moral lessons en route: within the rules of the game accuracy of knowledge and zeal are rewarded, while ignorance and idleness are punished. The requirements of each square and its consequences were recorded in an accompanying booklet, although this has been lost from this edition. This copy of the game belonged to William Proctor, the father of the astronomer and writer on science, Richard A. Proctor (1837-1888).

Iceland or Jer Falcon by John James Audubon, engraved by Robert Havell, 1837.