MARTA GONZÁLEZ-HONTORIA
Monday, 8 February 2021 - 01:11
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One of mystery.
Agloe, the imaginary city that became a real place
One of adventures.
The Letter of Juan de la Cosa, one of the most valuable maps in the world
He wanted to give his father, a traditional man, a globe for his 80th birthday.
This is how Peter Bellerby embarked on this unusual business.
He soon realized that he only had three options: either buy a modern one, "by the way, often with generous doses of sepia", or get an old model as fragile as it is expensive ...
Or try to make one of his own
.
"How difficult could it be to make a ball and paste a map?"
It didn't take long for him to realize that the complexity was enormous.
Just finding a map with no geographic or spelling errors was immense.
So much so that he ended up hiring two full-time cartographers.
Then there was the issue of the spherical mold, apparently almost all a long way from, in fact, perfect spheres, so he had to turn to
a Formula 1 manufacturer
.
Bellerby explains it very well: "You can multiply each error by the number Pi."
And this is without mentioning the work of gluing the fragile map fragments onto the mold: "An art that takes about 18 months to perfect."
A young man places the map segments on the globe.JADE FENSTER
But this was the Peter Bellerby of 2008. Today, Bellerby & Co.'s globes are used in Hollywood movies and occupy the shelves of Harrods department stores.
The studio in North London employs 25 people who
hand-make
up to 600 of these beautiful miniature Earth reproductions by hand.
Its price?
Between 1,300 and 50,000 euros.
Unique pieces
"Each balloon is totally unique: it differs in size, in the style of its base, in the colors and the finish," he explains.
"There are globes that do not have illustrations, but others may have more than a hundred. And they may represent an imaginary world or have old cartography."
Bellerby models go through the hands of at least
five different experts
.
From cartographers to painters, through illustrators, engravers, wood and metal craftsmen.
"Our apprentices manage to make a nearly perfect 22 cm balloon (the smallest model in the workshop) after about six months."
The artists paint the balloons with watercolor.PAUL MARC MITCHELL
This is so because aesthetic whims are sometimes joined by political issues.
"It's complicated because there are
disputed territories and borders
all over the world. I can go to jail in India if I mis-mark a border," says Bellerby.
"To a customer from Lebanon we could not send the balloon as maps where Israel appears are not allowed. We will never remove the name of a country. We draw disputed borders as such, in dispute. We cannot change or rewrite history." .
the craziest orders
What does not take away so that each balloon tells a story that has a lot to do with who commissioned it.
Like that man who wanted "all his dogs" to be drawn by hand on planes (glasses and scarf blowing in the wind).
One woman wanted to include an illustration of "her family traveling by boat while one of the daughters took a selfie."
Peter Bellerby.ANA SANTL
"We've had a couple of things that we haven't been able to do, but we tend to say yes to everything," Bellerby says.
"A man made us draw his girlfriend as
a topless mermaid all over the world
."
Orders have also arrived from our country.
"Many from Spain, yes. We have sent balloons to all countries in Europe, to almost all of Asia and America, and to a handful of countries in Africa.
The past 2020, so fateful for the travel industry, has not been a bad thing to reproduce celestial bodies.
Upside down.
"We have been incredibly lucky to have been busy all year."
According to Bellerby,
sales have grown 25%
.
He attributes it to the desire to have something new and pleasant in our homes, where we have spent many more hours due to confinement.
But also because ordering a globe is a great way to
remember past trips
.
"Many of our clients see it as a family heirloom to leave to future generations."
Do globes make sense in the age of Google maps?
"One and the other do not overlap. Google Earth and Google Maps help you to go from A to B. They will never inspire you or be an object of beauty. Also,
you cannot understand the world and your place in it by
looking at a flat map."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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