One of the last traditional globe makers – which sells orbs for more than $78,000 – reveals how one example was destroyed by US Customs after being suspected of concealing contraband and how a Miami customer had to bring a 48-inch globe to his apartment CRANE

Can you remember the first globe you laid your eyes on?

This is the first question that globemaker Peter Bellerby asks during a lecture in New York Discovery Club and the question certainly stirs up emotions, with many in the audience reminiscing.

The 58-year-old now stands as one of the world’s last remaining traditional globemakers and his company Bellerby & Co in London was born out of his frustration at not being able to find an 80th birthday gift for his father in 2008.

He tried to find a globe as a gift, but there was nothing decent for sale and the antique globes he found were auctioned off for exorbitant prices. Bellerby soon spotted a gap in the market and set out to learn everything he could about the archaic craft of globe making.

In just over ten years he has grown from a one-man band to a team of 26 people. His stunning, hand-painted orbs sell for over $78,000 in their largest size, with a waiting list currently of up to 14 months.

Bellerby – who admits he has had a rather bizarre career path, from nightclub owner to property developer to globe-maker, including a role in television – says his industry is very niche and there were no how-to books when he started.

It took him a few years to learn the ropes, with a lot of expenses and not much income at first.

He explains, ‘I had to learn all these different things… cartography… how to make a sphere… finding the right balance points to make a globe spin… [and] the most important thing was how to mold a piece of flat paper onto a sphere.

‘It was trial and error again and again. I didn’t know if I had the right paper or glue. I started with wallpaper paste, which wasn’t that great, but after two years I was happy where I was and started marketing the globes. My father eventually got his globe. It was the fourth one I made.’

Slowly it dawned on Bellerby that he needed to become more businesslike to make globe making a viable option.

The first globe he made sold for just over $1,000, but it cost over $3,000 to produce, so he had to work hard to straighten out the balance sheets.

Marketing was something else that Bellerby had to master, but luckily his partner Jade helped him with this task, leaving her job to do so.

Bellerby recalls that before Jade’s arrival in 2011, they sold about one globe a month and the business “wasn’t really going anywhere.”

However, Jade realized the power of social media and after creating an Instagram account, orders started pouring in.

Talking about the rise of his company, Bellerby says: ‘Jade knows her stuff and she started uploading lots of beautiful photos of our globes and the workshop to Instagram.

“It went from my family and friends following me to thousands and today we have over 150,000 followers.

“To be honest, I didn’t know this was a great way to promote the company. I thought Instagram would only be for young kids, but it is something amazing and attracts people of all ages from all over the world.

‘We were soon inundated with requests for photo shoots and videos and at one point I was doing two photo shoots a week!’

Bellerby originally started the company in his living room, which he said wasn’t ideal because “it looked like the Sahara” with particulate matter everywhere.

As more money came in, he took on rental space and set up a full-time workshop in East London.

Today Bellerby makes around 500 globes a year, with the US being its largest market.

The light bulbs – which require up to 18 professionals during the production process – come in different sizes, with the smallest ‘pocket’ version having a diameter of 12 cm and the largest ‘floor standing’ sphere having a diameter of 127 cm.

During his time in the world of globes, Bellerby has collected a pile of wild stories.

As he digs through the archives he discovers some treasures, including a client living in a Spanish castle who had to knock down and rebuild a wall in his stately home so it could fit a Bellerby & Co globe.

Another customer in Miami had to hoist his 48-inch globe into his 20th floor apartment because the globe was too big to fit in the elevator.

Shipping his globes has also proven problematic. When he started, he used lead weights in his globes, and one was opened by U.S. Customs because agents feared the globe was hiding contraband.

Bellerby said he only realized what had happened when he received a phone call from his client, who explained that she had received the globe, but some countries were in the wrong place because customs had glued the globe incorrectly.

“I also didn’t realize how political globemaking could be,” Bellerby muses.

Explaining how the map markings may vary, he continues: “Taiwan is not recognized by China, so if we sell to China we have to mark it as Chinese Taipei.

“Similarly, with Indian customers, we need to reshape the India-Pakistan border so that there is no disputed border with Kashmir.”

When asked about the future of his company, Bellerby says he will never enter the mass market.

He concludes: ‘We have a great team and we are checking quality more often than ever before.

‘It always remains tailor-made and very special. I don’t want to turn it into a factory where a hundred people produce things.

‘This all started because I had ridiculous confidence in my abilities. But I wouldn’t change things for the world.”

The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft by Peter Bellerby, published by Bloomsbury, is available and available to purchase now here.