Fore-Edge Book Paintings,

were back in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,

at its height in England, particularly the art of hiding pictures, at first casual glance to book would look like a normal gold edged book, 

 but if the leaves were fanned they would reveal a picture, we made a post about this way back in 2013, but I chanced upon these illustrations which show some of the art in much better detail,

  in his 1949 essay “On Fore-Edge Painting of Books” Kenneth Hobson came up with this rather nice metaphor to explain: “Imagine a flight of stairs, each step representing a leaf of the book. On the tread would be the painting and on the flat surface would be gold. A book painted and gilt in this way must be furled back before the picture can be seen.”

bookbinders, such as Edwards of Halifax, (if you have time have a read of this link, it is a book in itself!), got even cleverer with variations of the technique, producing books with “double fore-edge paintings”, where one image would be revealed when the book was fanned one way, and a second image revealed when fanned the other. “Triple fore-edge paintings” are where a third image is added instead of gilt or marbling. “Panoramic fore-edge paintings” utilise the top and bottom and edges to make continuous panoramic scenes. “Split double paintings” have two different illustrations, one on either side of the book’s centre, meaning that when the book is laid open in the middle, each is seen on either side. Very rare and skilled variations of the art only reveal the image when the the pages of the book are pinched or tented in a certain way,

the pictures can be of almost anything and can even have a meaning to the title of the book, this painting titled, Gentlemen at a Game of Chess, first published in 1749 as 'L'analyze des echecs', if you like this sort of thing one of the finest collections of fore-edge paintings is held at Boston Public Library, which you can see on their Flickr, and on a dedicated website, which includes an introductory essay by Anne C. Bromer of Bromer Booksellers, who along with her husband gifted this stunning collection to the Boston Public Library, just a few of which we have featured above.

Many Years Ago,

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 before until one arrived in the 1960s was 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, 

but when the book is closed the fore-edge looks like any other book with a gold fore-edge, a few days ago Colleen Theisen who helps with outreach and instruction at the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa shared an amazing gif she made that demonstrates fore-edge painting on the edge of a 1837 book called Autumn by Robert Mudie, (who wrote and compiled altogether about ninety volumes) what an amazing art, I mean who would have thought of it back in the 1650s?

Fore-Edge Painting,

the art of painting the edge of a book,

but you can only see the painting when the pages are fanned in a certain way, we have made a couple of posts about this unusual art before, and here is possibly the the last commercial fore-edge painter in the world, Martin Frost, 

You can view more of his hidden paintings, in addition to a series of illuminated miniatures, on his website, I wonder if anyone will apprentice his or herself to him, to stop this almost unique art from dying out?

This Is A Collection That No Library Should Be Without,

a complete set of H. G. Wells' works, 1924-1927,

 bound in full morocco bindings,

 with Wells' signature tooled to the front boards,

the finest edition of Wells' works, with a revision of the text by Wells himself, 

the set was published in London by T. Fisher Unwin, size: 9" by 6",

the first edition of the 'Atlantic Edition'. is signed by Wells to the limitation page of volume,

there were 620 copies of the London edition published, followed but a subsequent 1050 American sets, therefore the London edition is less common,

this edition also has a new general introduction and a special preface to each volume, signed by Wells to the first volume, and with a frontispiece to all volumes. Volume I is the only volume bound without the original tissue guard, collated, complete, with classics such as 'The Time Machine', 'Wonderful Visit', 'The War of the Worlds', 'Armageddon', 'Anticipations', 'The Sea Lady', 'Wheels of Chance', 'Mr Kipps' and 'First Men in the Moon', this is numbered 412 of limited to six hundred and twenty,

many leaves remain unopened to the fore-edge, Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times, this set is an exceptional example of his writings, as I mentioned a beautiful addition to any library, available at Rooke Books, this set could be yours for £27,750.00, if only I had the money!

After Dropping Diana Off At Work,

I made my way to Norwood Lakes, 

rain was forecast, 

but it was bright when I arrived, 

popular with dog walkers, fishermen and boaters,

it has a nice selection of birds, 

these are just a few I have posted at random, 

one of everything I saw today, 

but I have a few that are worth playing with, then it happened with a crash of thunder, or three, the skies opened up,

a huge storm passed overhead unleashing quite large hailstones, I made my way back under cover,

although it looks bright, the hail had turned into huge drops of rain, lots of them!

I and the camera were by now thoroughly soaked, so home I went, but here is one shot of a grebe in the hailstorm that I played with and printed out on a A3 piece of paper,

below are the three I played with and printed out on A3 size paper, 

a brown headed duck, the hailstones falling around the grebe, and a moorhen,

next I was out, the Beckenham Photographic Society was having the end of season get together, so past the snail mail box, 

I walked into town, it had rained so much the pavement was flooded in places, 

past a very wet green, 

and graveyard, 

into M & S for a couple of slices of fruit cake, 

and into here, Deli Nene,

there were going to be about 15 or so of us, 

and here we are, I started with chicken strips, 

and a mixed kebab, 

followed with baklava, a with a bottle of wine my bill came to £65.00, but before that on our table we chatted away, from book binding and my apprenticeship as a ruler, 

the machine I learnt on was a 4 carriage Shaw pen ruling machine, in the video above, 

also my travels in India and a series of videos I made and sold in the shop, for some reason the narration made by myself has disappeared and been replaced with music, it is a bit long as it is the complete video, below are a few shorts from it and other videos I made for the shop,

back to my apprenticeship we also chatted about fore edge pictures, I made a post about it many years ago it is here, and a then a coincidence I mention that I had bought Diana a early Christmas present, a hover, the one we bought 7 years or so ago when we moved back to the UK had failed, so when she first used I reminded her to remember this at Christmas, and then today I received this:

what a coincidence! speaking of Christmas I mentioned another present, a step ladder, which will come in handy to repair this, 

one of our three ceiling lights has come adrift, 

it looks serious but at least we have a step ladder, but we are running out of time, tomorrow in the afternoon we have tickets for a Midsomer Murder at the Churchill, and a meal afterwards, the next day Diana is off to Krakow, so I will get a electrician in to put it back whilst she is away, so back home I beat Diana by about 20 minutes so we settled down to a Bangers & Cash before we were off to bed.

For Some Reason,

lately almost every week, I see a book that interests me,

this week this work by William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who first went to Egypt in 1880 to survey the Great Pyramid, He was then at the forefront of the development of archaeology in Egypt before turning his attentions to Palestine, and why is this of interest to me? way back in April 2016 on one of our trips to London after an afternoon tea and a visit to a few other places of interest we called into The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, as I mentioned in the post, 'you may ask why not go to say the Smithsonian or perhaps the British museum that both spring to mind when thinking of Egyptian artefacts? well they both have a few, but if you want to see a museum with the largest number of ancient Egyptian artefacts you come here, with over 80,000 it has the largest collection Egyptian artefacts in the world!' 

back to the book,

it is titled 1917 Scarabs and Cylinders, published in London by the  School of Archaeology in Egypt; University College; Constable and Co; Bernard Quaritch, size: 12.5" by 10" Pagination: viii, 46, lxiiipp

from the blurb, 'it has been rebound, in a buckram binding. Externally, excellent with minor shelf wear. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright. Scattered spots to the fore-edge, affecting the occasional page, and it is a scarce first edition', yours for just £250.00 at Rooke Books, a tad out of my price range, but what an interesting find.