2001, Collecting Feature, Showcase Magazine, Going Global

Showcase Magazine
“Going Global”
by Sheila Gibson
April 2001, pp. 176-177

This article spotlights three globe dealers, including George Glazer. The author introduces them by observing, “[World] globes, those low-to no-tech teaching instruments of medieval origin, still hold their popularity. They’ve simply evolved to include additional roles as historic artifacts and objets d’art; though new ones continue their cartographic function…No true world citizen can do without one.” The portion about George follows:

Old-world Dreams

George Glazer specializes in antique globes. He doesn’t deal with them exclusively, but he’d like to. “The more I look at globes, the more I like them, the more I see in them,” he says.

At the George Glazer gallery in Manhattan, collectors can find spheres from the 18th through the early 20th centuries: free-standing floor models, tabletop spheres, and pocket-size and novelty globes. Currently among the latter is a black marble 1960s-era Soviet cosmonaut trophy-globe that stands 1 foot tall ($5,500).

“Globes can encapsulate everything. They’re part science, part history, part travel, part decorative, and part map,” Glazer says.

A rare 3-inch pocket globe with the constellations, planets, and zodiac imprinted on its surface instead of landmasses and oceans is one of his more unusual items. A similar guide to the stars from the Duke of Windsor collection sold at Sotheby’s for almost twice the $5,500 being asked for this one.”