I spent 5 years as an apprentice,
in a printing company, the building was a converted silk mill in Lewisham, South East London, but that is another story, whilst there I was fascinated by the bookbindery, so many books would come in to be repaired, some to have their fly leaves, end papers or fore-edges to be re-marbled, some to have yapped edges repaired or replaced, a few even arrived complete with locks and keys to stop people opening the covers, antique books arrived every few weeks at the bindery,
but one book I have never seen is one with secret fore-edge painting, the skill is believed to date back as early as the 1650s, it is a way of hiding a painting on the edge of a book so that it can only be seen when the pages are fanned out, there are even books that have double fore-edge paintings, where a different image can be seen by flipping the book over and fanning the pages in the opposite direction,
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