The Globemakers

Peter Bellerby is an artisan globemaker whose company Bellerby & Co is one of only two handcrafted globemakers in the world. His team of craftspeople make exquisite celestial, terrestrial, historical and planetary globes for customers round the world. The story began when Peter attempted to find a special globe for his father's 80th birthday but couldn't. He decided to make one himself which took him on an extraordinary journey of rediscovering this lost craft. This beautiful and tactile book uses illustration, photography and narrative to tell the story of our globe and many different globes it has inspired. The chapters take us through the journey of how to build a globe and include vignettes on history, art history, astronomy and physics, as well as the day-to-day craftsmanship at the workshop itself. At the heart of the book are the globes themselves, or 'earth apples' as they were first known, whose 'overview effect' can't help but remind us of our individual insignificance.