Bellerby & Co. Globemakers
Based in Stoke Newington in London, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers is the world’s only truly bespoke maker of globes, whose team of skilled artisans are reviving and rediscovering this forgotten craft
Words and images: Skye O’Neill
When Peter Bellerby was unable to find a high-quality globe for his father’s 80th birthday, he did what almost no one else would think to do: he taught himself how to make one. Having searched high and low for a functional but beautiful globe, he had been unable to find one that fit the bill. At the time, he says, “I could not have envisaged the scale of the task… I estimated it would take three to four months and cost a few thousand pounds”—surely it was just a simple mix of basic maths, art and craftmanship. It hadn’t really crossed his mind why there might not be other globemakers doing everything by hand or that the process might be more difficult that it seemed at first glance.
By summer 2010, however, he had managed to complete a few globes and had established his own company, Bellerby & Co. Globemakers: the only fully bespoke globemaker in the world. Peter now runs the business in a light-filled workshop in north-east London, employing a team of skilled cartographers, illustrators and makers, many of them graduates from art school or with a background in model-making.
The workshop itself is a space that reflects the company’s commitment to traditional craftsmanship. On the day I visit, it is a hive of activity, ranging from carpenters making the bases to illustrators delicately applying watercolour washes to represent the sea, which might have tiny illustrations of whales, sharks or seals lazing in its waters. The cartography is precise and accurate, but it’s these additional elements that turn a functional object into a work of art. It is different from the experience of looking at a map. “For me the modern digital map and the globe perform completely different functions,” Peter explains. “You never use a globe today for directions, and when you look at a map on your phone, you never experience the same awed feeling as you do when you hold a globe in your hand or spin it on its axis. Google Maps might inform, but a globe inspires.”
Customers, including collectors, institutions, and individuals around the world, are offered a high degree of customisation for their globes. Size, style, colours, and even personalised cartography can be chosen to suit their preferences. Want to commemorate your honeymoon travels or a significant journey? Bellerby can add handcrafted elements to capture these kinds of personal moments and meaning. The company also collaborates with artists to create limited edition globes.
There is something fascinating about visiting a workshop where traditional crafts are practised. There is a sense of continuity with the skills of the past—I am reminded of medieval mapmakers when I see the decorative flourishes and watercolours that are added by hand to each globe. Being able to witness the process of making them adds depth and meaning to the globes scattered about the workshop in various stages of the creative process. One illustrator works intently on a huge globe that is as big as he is, as he sits before it, tiny brush in hand, making precise strokes. Seeing the skill, time, and effort invested in creating each globe, I can only wonder at a business that appears to be flourishing whilst using the most skilled, labour-intensive, traditional methods of production. And yet it is also continually evolving, because the world literally does not stand still. Politically, it is always changing, and the art of globemaking reflects that.
As his team meticulously crafts globes that bridge past and present, Peter Bellerby’s vision has transformed and elevated functional, practical objects into captivating works of art that reflect an ever-changing landscape and invoke a sense of wonder unmatched by digital maps.
[First published in Issue 4 of Fieldfare]