Q: I have started collecting tin globes that are meant to show the world or are used as banks or even games. Most are made by J. Chien or Ohio Art Co., both manufacturers of toys since the 1930s. I can now afford some better globes. What should I look for?

A: Globes have been made since the days of the ancient Greeks but probably the earliest known today is a Nuremberg globe, finished in 1493, but soon outdated because it had an empty ocean where the American continents would soon be reported. You can probably find many American globes made in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The first U. S. globe maker was James Wilson and he cleverly made his globes an inch larger than the British competition, advertising that his were bigger and better. Look for 1930s to 1940s globes made by Rand McNally, Weber Costello, Cram, Hammond, or Replogle. After World War II, the boundaries of countries changed so often it makes it easy to date your globes. Today changing boundaries and country names are an even greater problem for globe makers, but help the collector looking for vintage globes. 

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