Global ambitions
For those of a certain generation, the globe was an important educational aid that was a familiar part of the classroom furniture. For others, it is the kitsch appeal of a cocktail globe trolley. The walls of my school’s geography class were hung with Mercator maps, while a large globe sat on the teacher’s desk, which my tutor would nonchalantly spin during lessons. The nostalgia of owning a globe takes me back to a lesson that I actually enjoyed, but these spheres have several facets of potential collectability, too.
Turning in time
Globes come in many different forms. The word originates from ‘’, the Latin for sphere, and the first examples date back over two millennia. The oldest known in existence is the celestial globe cradled in the arms atop the 2nd-century Farnese Atlas in Naples – a gargantuan Roman marble sculpture,
