Book Fore-Edge Painting

Before I started researching leather binding and binderies I was looking into page edge gilding. This  fascinated me as a child and was one of the few things that kept me entertained during Sunday worship. I have always been amazed and enchanted by gold gilding on the edge of books but whilst trying to find out how it is created I stumbled across this.

Fore-edge paintings are created when the page block is fanned and an image painted on the surface. In the video the page edges have been gilded, as a result the image disappears when the book is not fanned. But the fun doesn't stop there. One image can be applied on each side of the edge and on large volumes two images can be applied on each edge. With each book having three edges six to twelve images can be applied in this way to each book.

Split Double

Since 1970, Martin Frost has produced well over 3300 Fore-edge and Miniature Paintings and his site is well worth cheking out http://www.foredgefrost.co.uk/