Private Air New York

www.privateairny.com Private Air | Spring 2020 66 THE COLLECTION gently stretched while damp, only a few at a time since while they are drying, they still want to move. "You learn how to do it by messing it up 50 times. So it's taught patience to someone who likes things to happen quickly. I'm a much calmer driver now," says Bellerby. "e thing is that there's no mathematical formula, but you're constantly fighting with pi. Get each panel wrong by one-tenth of a millimeter, and by the time you've finished, you've got a centimeter gap somewhere." Better perhaps than the alternative found on cheap, mass-produced globes, in which the panels might overlap. "I've seen whole cities disappear that way," he says. Just deciding what to put on a globe is a complex decision, one that requires keeping up with world affairs. Capitals change, countries divide in two. ere might be a border, but if the split's not yet official, what to do with your latest order? e decisions are not only geopolitical. "Effectively when we publish each globe we put on the biggest cities in each country, although in some instances that can mean quite small places. Some places you have to be careful not to put too much detail on. Crown out Europe, and suddenly Africa looks rather bare. But I think the map should show reality: 16th-century globes had sea monsters on them because that's what they then thought might be out there. Maybe we should put a few super-tankers on. ere are no strict regulations in cartography. At the end of the day, you can put on whatever you want." Bellerby's Churchill globe for a Brazilin company is mounted upside down, to make Brazil more prominent. Just intriguing are the series of celestial globes made for an installation by the artist and regular customer Yinka Shonibare, with stars renamed after figures in literature.

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