that must be a pain to dust..

We're map people and if we had more space, I would love to add old globes. We love watching people put their geography/history knowledge to the test and guess which year a map is from.

Timeless.

In my view: A timeless dustcatcher (yet ANOTHER thing to dust).

I have one globe in my home library. The collections look like too much of a good thing, and they take up a lot of space.

Definitely Timeless!

A globe...perchance to dream?

Owning one is timeless. More than one, a trend. (My opinion, of course.)

I agree with Michael W. I really want a globe...10..would be too much of a great thing.

Unless of course if I was geographer or a geography teacher then owning more than 1 would be practical and kind of adorable. :)

I also think a globe is timeless. But a collection seems unnecessary/trendy - especially the way they are displayed all together on one table. I'd rather have one useful globe on a desk than a million outdated ones wasting valuable surface area. I think if you're going to collect them, try to display them in interesting ways so that each piece gets its own space to breathe and shine. Spread them throughout the entire home, instead of having a creepy globe shrine.

As with all of these things, I think if you actually collect things over time and they all have their own little stories, then they are never just a trend. If however you just spot an image with a few in and rush out to purchase a bunch in one fell swoop only to get rid of them a few years later, then it's just a trend, and it's pretty lame.

I guess if you don't love them enough to dust them, you don't love them enough.

Timeless? I think not.

Timeless!

"We've seen this trend play itself out over the last couple of years..."

If one opens with the statement that the trend is 2 years old it is easy to label as a trend. If one actually looks back and realizes that globes have been part of decor schemes for the preceding decade (and actually their price in antique markets really started to escalate in the 90s), it looks more timeless.

A whole collection is a little much, but just one or two carefully placed globe feels timeless.

I love them in clusters like you've shown! Timeless!

Tired. Express your originality! Globe clusters are overdone and EVERYWHERE.

TOtally agreeing with the people saying that while one is cute, a collection is trendy.

I believe in having things in the home that one uses. One globe is fun to play with and decorative. A collection of globes is unnecessary and - let's be honest - WAY TOO HIPSTER! Same with typewriter collections, letter press art, paper triangle flag hangings, and the ubiquitous 'Keep Calm...' and 'Love You For Like Ever' posters.

One or two.. maybe even three if you have them spreadout throughout the house is timeless. More than that... not so much.

My husband has always loved globes, and I've bought him a few over the years-we'd call them 'vintage' but two of them were from the junkiest of junk shops. We now have a globe in each of the babies' rooms, plus 4 globes of varying sizes on a dresser in the main room, with a small ivory colored fat Buddha (I collect Buddhas, preferably fat ones) plus my husband's brass (and gorgeous) kaleidoscope. Looks great, it's very personal and I don't care if it's a trend, timeless, hipster or totally 'out'...I like it.

Trend. Only thing timeless is the dust.

"I guess if you don't love them enough to dust them, you don't love them enough." Right!

If your reason for liking globes is that they give a room a certain look, then it's probably a trend for you and you should sell all your globes at really discount prices so I can buy them.

If you love globes because your parents had them and they remind you of home, you like collecting, you love testing and expanding your knowledge of trivia, being reminded of past trips, daydreaming about future trips, or any other reason that is personal to you than globes are timeless and worthy of weekly dusting!

I have a collection of globes... but it grew organically.

One (from 1895) was won by my grandmother in a geography bee in 1919. One (from 1947) was made by my father when he was working his way through college making globes at the Replogle factory. One (from 1995) I purchased when I worked for Rand McNally.

There are some more, but they all have a story. I think that kind of collection is timeless.

The kind of collection where one saw a picture and went out to pick them up at the antique store? One will tire of them, and they will be rotated out.

They really aren't that hard to dist... a microfibre cloth and a spin and you are good! My grandmother's has an iron base that is a bear but I wouldn't give it up for anything.

I hesitate to admit I have a similar collection of vintage cameras (all with stories and family history). I am very 'on trend' right now, but 5 years ago or 5 years from now? Not so much.

1 = timeless, >1 = trend.

It certainly is a trend here on AT - and is often trotted out for all of us to re-examine.

Looks like you missed the image from Lost Crates!. www.lostcrates.com

I have one, which is glass, that I bought on a trip overseas. It's only about 2" in diameter, but I love seeing it on my desk.

As everyone else pointed out, having 10+ is starting to feel a little overdone.

I think they're timeless, but for the sake of just decor, they can be a bit much - particularly in a huge group like that. But if someone collects globes (or anything really) and they love to see them all over the house, who are we to say it's wrong or too trendy, or not trendy enough, or....

laughing as I just won a collection of 8 globes on ebay...
It's a trend?? I thought it was just my own personal love
and to find out now that I'm a hipster! whoa

Great in theory. Like if you happen to live in an actual store. They do look cool. But if you live in a place like NYC forget about it. First, these bad boys get dusty fast. Second, it's clutter-y.

I've coveted my friend Carrie's vintage Sunday School map that hangs in her NYC kitchen for years. I'd like to sneak that thing out of her apartment someday. I was just thinking about vintage school maps this morning. There's one I love in Cafe Gitane, too.

Maps, yes, timeless. Globe collection? Just a hassle. A timeless, timeless hassle.

I agree with other posters... one is timeless, but a group is trendy. Of course, as far as trends go its a rather attractive one.

I'm a bit biased against collections though. I generally try to use my space for more functional objects.

globes, IT'S OVER!

joking. i think grouping of globes right now might be teetering in the trend category but I remember a school friend (mother was a librarian) and they had a ton of globes and maps decorating their house. so I actually will say timeless. ...unless you bought them at urban.

I was a little surprised to see "shelf of globes" become a hotly contested decorating staple; I started buying up globes in junk shops as a teenager. Sooooo, that's ~25 years ago. I displayed them in a cluster with a couple of childhood globes, including the tin dime-store globes my great-grandfather bought (and painted with his ship's route from Japan, as a keepsake) when he arrived in NYC to give to the grandchildren he was meeting for the first time, one of whom was my father.

Sure, I had an emotional association with one of these globes, but friends often admired them, too, which suggests to me that they have a wide and timeless appeal.

Those collection of globes kind of freak me out. Way toooooo much.

CCinca said it perfectly. More than one = trend.

Yeah, the only picture here that doesn't look totally ridiculous is #4 with them arranged neatly on shelves. Having a ton of them just sitting on a table looks totally silly and cluttered/junky, and makes you look like you're just desperate to have them there but don't care that they look dumb how you have them. Arranging them nicely looks just fine. I am fond of old maps/globes because I like the geopolitical changes on them, like watching the USSR dissolve and whatnot, but just like most other things it takes a lot of skill to make a collection look attractive and not just like a pile of crap.

Timeless, I have a wrought iron globe that I will always have on display.

Hipster? Had a collection like this back in the 80s... started with little banks.

globes happen to be really interesting looking objects (aside from their usefulness) with a huge variety in terms of styling with many getting better looking with age; I think this makes them timeless: they are intrinsically lovely and valid objects.

that said, there is something cloying in the 'artfully arranged' vignettes that have become so ubiquitous. that look has run it's course, in my opinion...

Funny, I love to travel and have always loved maps and globes (way longer than the 2-year "trend") and have been slowly collecting a few globes over several years. I love that they capture a particular moment in geopolitical history. When I bought my house, I amped up my collecting to put a grouping of them on the mantel in the living room. I love them and they're one of the first things people compliment if they've never been to my house before. The walls in the living room are a neutral grasscloth and there are pops of blue and turquoise in the room, so the old, patinaed globes work really well.

Timeless.

Very cool look I love all the colors.. MIzzo

Some of the stories on here are beautiful! I think, like anything, if there is a personal touch/story behind them and a personal collection with associated memories- it's timeless.

If you bought the whole collection off ebay- trendy and REALLY lame- unless you plan on MAKING them heirlooms.

I think timeless. I love maps and globes. My son has a map on his wall and a big, old globe on his dresser. He loves it.

Not a trend for me if I've had them since the '70s, y'all. I also collect Turkish ceramics. I don't care for trends.

I love my 1948 school globe and don't care if it's a fad.

Surely the answer, as to almost everything is neither one nor the other?

If you bought a whole pile of globes in a job lot bc you wanted to look trendy, it is a trend. If you like & collect them, or have them with stories attached, they're timeless - the world isn't black & white, unless you have one of those monochrome globes...

i'd love to have one or two globes. i used to love looking at my dad's as a kid. spinning it and seeing where your finger lands, etc. more than just a few looks a bit ridiculous though!

I love old maps ad old globes, but like Holler it's more for the country changes - probably because I lived in Estonia right after it got its freedom from the USSR. I'd kill for one written in Cyrillic ! I found a great old geopolitical globe with black seas for $19 in an antique shop in Arizona so the trend of overpriced globes as decor hasn't hit everywhere. I agree that a couple are enough unless there's some backstory or you have kids who seem to love gobes.

There hasn't been a time since I received my first globe as a young child that I haven't had either a globe or a map in my living space. When I was in sixth grade, our teacher gave every student in the class a really basic but large world map. That thing hung on my wall and moved from room to room with me until my mid 20's! I'm aways on the lookout for new maps, the more "outdated" the better (I love what HLG22 had to say about capturing a particular moment in geopolitical history!). As for globes, I have one vintage globe that my mother gave me a few years back, and that's all the globe I need.

If you've seen something so many times that you're wondering if it's a fad or not - it is. Like a cluster of a dozen globes in one place. Yes, absolutely.

One nice one is timeless.

It's both. Timeless to those who collect because of the mystique, trend to those who COPY them. In fact, I suspect MOST design trends are caused by a bunch of people suddenly copying some idea they see done by an enthusiast who has done something interesting out of love, and which captures the imaginations of those who just find the LOOK interesting -- temporarily.

Globes have been collectibles for at least the 50 years I have been seeing them at flea markets. Probably longer. As countries change borders or names, as places like the Soviet Union break up, globes become dated, or, more accurately, snapshots of a point in history. To some people THAT is interesting.

Don't do things because they are "hip" or "cool" but because you honestly love them, and you aren't likely to become tired of them. And don't imagine that everybody's decor is displayed to give you brand new ideas that you haven't seen before, when it's just showing how one home looks, pleasing those homeowners who may NOT be tired of that "trend".

It seems ridiculous to have so many, particularly ones that are similar! I'd love to have an astroglobe of the night sky or an old globe with the Victorian empire on it. One or two is lovely, but cluttering up a whole mantle with globes seems silly and redundant.

I actually thought my globe collection was getting out of hand. I believe I'm up to about 15 or so. They are all so beautiful, and no two in my collection are alike. Nice to see there are others with the same fascination.

The world is flat, no amount of globes will convince me.... :D

Ok its nice, I was in Ghent last year and the hotel had a chandelier made from globes, very odd indeed. Ghent was nice though.

My hubby has always dreamed of a collection of globes. I'm of the dust-collector meme, but I have to admit, #3 does it very nicely.

I love globes, but could care less if they are a trend or not. I also only have one and eventually would like another. I love maps too.