There is a small company in London that is still crafting models of the world entirely by hand. The traditional profession that was almost lost is now thriving.
It takes between a few weeks to a few months for artists at Bellerby & Company to complete each single globe from start to finish.
A team of 8 artists make around 300 globes a year, wetting and stretching paper on a plaster-of-paris sphere and then hand painting all the detail around the continents and oceans.
LOOK: Download 2000 Magnificent Turn-of-the-Century Art Posters, Courtesy NY Public Library
They even personalize the maps for some customers; the cartography can be edited for each customer, mapping people’s lives – from their adventures, to explorations to the history of their family’s movement across the world.
For more information, check out the Bellerby’s website.