A quiet backstreet in east London is perhaps not the obvious place one might expect to find a company that has created a successful international manufacturing business from a long-lost art form.

Inside Bellerby & Co’s light-infused premises strips of drying paper hang from the ceiling, paintbrushes wait their turn in ragged rows and artists carefully weave their magic as spring sunshine streams in through lofty windows.

If you ignore the electric cables, Apple Macs and very contemporary appearance of the workforce you could think you were looking at a scene from the era of Captain Cook or Admiral Nelson.

An alternative to socks

The company owes its existence to founder Peter Bellerby’s quest for a unique gift. “I’d given my father the usual socks, ties and books as birthday presents for the whole of my adult life,” he recalls, “but his 80th birthday was approaching and I wanted to find something special. In particular, I wanted to buy him a really nice globe.”

What Bellerby found, however, was an unexpected gap in the market. His options were either fragile antiques or uninspiring, mass-produced alternatives. The ability to manufacture top-quality globes had seemingly sunk without trace at some point in the 20th century.

Even though his own forays into hands-on creativity had at this point been limited to a lengthy spell at ITV, doing-up a few houses, and some amateur violin restoration, Bellerby decided to have a crack at making a globe himself. After all, he reasoned, how hard could it be?

The answer to that question, as it turned out, was “extremely”.

Indeed it took almost two years for Bellerby junior to perfect the process, in which time he sold his house, his car (“a beautiful 1967 Aston Martin”) and saw more than 200 failed attempts go into the bin.

Made to order

Ten years on, though, business is buoyant; the firm employs 20 people and the order book is full – although the actual manufacturing process remains intricate and complicated.

Bellerby explains: “You need to create a perfect sphere, using two half-moulds. My first globes were made using plaster of Paris, but for the larger globes we now use modern composites and the smaller ones are made from solid, weighted resin.”

The next stage involves editing the map itself. “Since each globe is made to order we are updating our cartography regularly and personalise depending on our customers’ preferences,” he adds.

Once the map is ready, it is printed and cut up by hand into precise shapes called gores, which are hand-painted using watercolours. When the gores are dry, they are attached to the globe, a process known as “goring the globe”.

“It’s very precise work,” says Bellerby. “It’s also very difficult because you’re wetting the paper and stretching it. Wet paper, as you can imagine, is very fragile.”

He adds: “Our artists tend to come from art and design school backgrounds, but everyone has to go through a lengthy training process so someone self taught, who has always been a keen maker in their free time, is just as likely to excel in the role if they are passionate about it.”

“From shipwrecks to family portraits”

Other members of the team include two cartographers, dedicated to making sure the maps are up-to-date and in keeping with clients’ wishes.

Says Bellerby: “Each globe is bespoke or made to order so each customer has personal requests and edits they want added to their maps. For example, our cartographers will plot travel routes and figure out how to place small illustrations while not losing too many city names in the process.”

In addition there is an illustrator, “from shipwrecks to family portraits she’s done it all”; an engraver, “she looks like something out of the 1400s in the way she works and the tools she uses”; woodworkers to create the globes’ gleaming bases, and painters, ranging from the vastly experienced to trainees.

Bellerby says: “I run things day to day, making sure we are on schedule as much as possible. Exact deadlines are impossible with handmade and hand-painted work as you cannot rush anyone or predict the setbacks that may be ahead.

“Brexit has not impacted us at all, we have always had customers worldwide and we have only continued to see increased sales. As far as the future I don’t think any of us have a clear idea of what is still to come. We’ll have to see and roll with the punches if any come our way.”

It’s surely not too fanciful, in this context, to imagine Cook or Nelson standing in their ship’s wardroom, thoughtfully perusing a suitably elegant globe and uttering a similar statement.

London’s Bellerby Globes rediscovers an 18th-century art form.

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