A man of the world is not a man who navigates by Google Maps.
Useful tool, sure. But as far as giving you some perspective — and adding a level of sophistication to your study — you need a globe.
Enter Bellerby & Co., one of the world’s last makers of bespoke globes. A private studio in London, B&C crafts all their globes made to order out of exotic hardwoods and sturdy metals. The final result is so nice the company landed its own exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in 2012.
You can ask for your own custom model, or work with their own impressive templates, which range from the Albion (mini desk globes made of bubinga and 5,000-year-old bog oak) to The Galileo (a larger orb cradled in a majestic oak base, featuring aged brass meridian and deep horizon bands, and then personalized to mark locations of “personal significance” for its owner).
About those personalizations: add whatever character, highlights or illustrations you desire. By customer requests, the company’s tacked on sea monsters, family photos, love letters in the Pacific Ocean, turtles in the Galapagos, pyramids in Giza, sailboats and ships sailing the oceans.
Consider B&C globes a fantastic idea for Father’s Day … in 2018. These take awhile to make (between six weeks and eight months), and the founder is meticulous: he actually started the company after trying to make a globe for his dad’s 80th and realizing the entire industry was “rubbish” (starting with imperfect latitude lines … actually, his whole rant on globemakers is worth a read).
Consider this what the world — and your dad — needs now.
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