#fore-edge paintings

[betterbooksandthings]

“If you are new to the world of fore-edge paintings, you are in for a treat. If you have ever looked at a book with a painting on the edge of the pages (AKA the fore-edge), you have seen fore-edge paintings. They are one aspect of book history that blends into art history. In my humble opinion, they are an important bit of book magic.

In the 1650s, London bookbinders Stephen and Thomas Lewis, added fore-edge paintings to their books. By painting the edge while they were angled, customers could see the paintings when the book was fanned out and see only the gilded edges when the books were closed. John Ansley, a researcher on the subject of fore-edge paintings, explains the two theories as to the origin of the technique. Either the paintings started as a way to help identify books that were placed horizontally in libraries with the pages out, similar to the interior design trend on HGTV, or they started as a way for bookbinders to show off and glam up every part of their product.

However, the trend began, the fore-edge painting techniques preserved the visibility of both the text and the fore-edge painting. The process of painting the fore-edge of a book was not easy, to say the least. Watercolor painters clamped the pages together at an angle before they used almost-dry brushes to paint an image on the pages and gild or marble the flat edges once the painting dried. If their brushes were too wet, artists risked marring the text on the page. If the gild was applied too quickly or at the wrong angle, the artist could damage or lose the fore-edge painting that already used the painter’s time and materials. Fore-edge painters had to know their craft if they wanted to create a viable final product for their customers.

Although other stationers and booksellers applied fore-edge paintings to their books in the later half of the 1600s, the rise in the popularity of the technique did not come until the late 1700s. The Edwardses of Halifax applied fore-edge paintings on the books in their shops. Fore-edge paintings became a part of a book’s paratext that helped bookbinders use artistry to sell their wares.“ 

#book post #THESE BOOKS HAVE AN EDGY SECRET: A HISTORY AND GALLERY OF FORE-EDGE PAINTING AND ART #book history #paratext #fore-edge paintings #book painting #art history #bookish history #Edwardses of Halifax #early modern period #Watercolor #painting #Stephen and Thomas Lewis #bookbinders #book with a painting on the edge of the pages #paintings on books #tiktok #tiktok fore-edge paintings #fore edge paintings #old books #antique books #rare books

[theanonymousreads]

Six of Crows fore edge ✨

Can you spot the crows in the long-edge? ☺️

Check out more paintings on my Instagram ✨ @theanonymousreads

#bookaholic #booktok #book blog #book edge painting #booknerd #books #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram #bookworm #art #painting #foreedge painting #fore edge painting #six of crows #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone #crow club #watercolor #photography #bookish #bookish art #artists on tumblr #illustration

[newlullabies]

Fore Edge Paintings by AliceInWaleslandArt on Etsy

#books books books #fore edge painting #painting #artist #artists on tumblr #art

[renabooksandart]

🖤The Raven King with a commissioned painting of Andrew🦊 🖤

#book art #fore edge #book painting #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #aftg art #book fanart #book edges #foreedgepainting #the raven king #the kings men #andreil #andrew minyard #neil x andrew #aftg andrew

[glitterchloroform]

Goldfinch on Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch

#fore edge painting #fore-edge painting #the goldfinch #book arts #my things #it's handmade gold watercolour on it! #I wanna post the vid too but gotta edit it a little

[ilikeit-art]

YouTube - Instagram - TikTok profile brimariepaints

#hidden fore edge painting #artwork #the tale of Arwen and Aragorn #Bri Marie Paints

[cilyra]

shadow and bone trilogy painted by me ☀️

#cilyra #grishaverse #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone #netflix #alina starkov #darklina #ben barnes #crooked kingdom #inej ghafa #jessie mei li #fore edge painting

[wer0ni]

ARWEN AND ARAGORN LOTR FORE-EDGE PAINTING

Hello ♥ I created a separate instagram account for my fore-edge painting, here: Veronis_BookNook 💗

And also an ETSY store, if you're interested in any of the books, I'm also moving my commissions here 🌻 VeronisBookNook ETSY store

I'm slowly working on different books, I'll post about those available on my insta!

#art #painting #book art #fore edge painting #foreedge painting #foreedge art #artists on tumblr #book edge painting #arwen #lotr #tolkien #aragorn #the lord of the rings

[thebeautifulbook]

THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. An early closed Fore-edge painting by Hayday Bindery on Gauffered edges.

#beautiful books #book blog #books books books #book cover #books #old books #fore edge painting #gauffred #book of common prayer

[milkmanviii]

I finally committed to painting my phase 1 box set.

I had to put Starlight Beacon on there and the Vessel is similarly iconic. I tried to match the background to the cover art as much as possible. My airbrush is officially dead so I used a sponge instead but I think it came out pretty good. I think there’s still something to this I haven’t quite worked out because I still had issues with some of the paint cracking off and I had to go back and fix it but I think it looks okay, just a little faded. The paint’s probably on too thick but I forget how much is already on there.

Honestly, these are some of my favourite books (not that I read much else). I am perhaps a little obsessed.

#star wars #art #high republic #the high republic #fore edge painting #book edge painting #starlight beacon #jedi vectors #the vessel #into the dark #out of the shadows #midnight horizon #my art

[paontaure]

I tried the “Fore-edge painting” and I love that ! <3

2023 © Paontaure

#fore edge painting #book painting #foreedgepainting

[greaseonmymouth]

my copy of A Power Unbound (Illumicrate edition) arrived today and so I am going to ramble about 💫book production💫 and ✨special finishes✨!

(in case this breaks containment, I work in publishing though not for Freya Marske's publisher nor Illumicrate, and I have been terminally online in fandom and writing spaces for 20+ years)

when I heard about Marske's book deal it was both through tumblr and professional channels, and since I already liked her fanfiction I decided to Watch Out For Interesting Things, because I wanted to see how tradpub was going to treat a fandom-originated author - not the first one in tradpub by any means, but one I knew writes unabashedly queer stories and I wanted to see how that would play out in a world that had only just started making mainstream queer media

so, book 1, A Marvellous Light. I preordered the Waterstones special edition because there was a Waterstones special edition and I hadn't expected there to be

the finishes on this book are:

wibalin case (or arlin, or any other imitation bookcloth paper, brand is irrelevant) with matt varnish

title printed on spine

dustjacket with matt lamination, spot uv and embossing

sprayed edges in one colour (pantone or imitation pantone - this is different from 4 colour)

this is very neat and a bit splashy, but not so splashy as to break the budget - this is a reasonable amount of splashy for a debut author that the publisher is planning to push hard/has expectations to sell well. I personally expected this to sell really well also, for multiple reasons I won't get into here, and that as a result we'd get more fun finishes on the next book in the series

so, book 2, A Restless Truth, the Waterstones special edition which i again pre-ordered

everything about this book screams 'book 1 did really well so let's RAMP UP THE FANCY we can afford it now!

the finishes on this book are:

wibalin case

title printed on spine

dustjacket with matt lamination, spot uv, embossing, and foil

sprayed edges in one colour and a digitally printed fore edge in 4 colour

two more expensive finishes added! the retail price on this was £2 more than for AML, which let me tell you, those extra finishes do not cost that much lmao, at least not at the printers my company works with, but 2022 saw prices go up everywhere. so ehh fair's fair.

and this brings us to book 3, A Power Unbound, which didn't get a Waterstones special edition which I was upset about for SO LONG because a) I wanted one to match my existing set even if the two editions didn't match to begin with as the finishes were different and b) I was worried this was a sign that book 2 hadn't performed as well (or just not performed to the publisher's expectations, which is not the same) and the publisher wouldn't justify the cost of doing another special edition - considering book 2 was sapphic that was a real worry as historically they don't sell as well as gay books. but book 3 got an Illumicrate edition instead

without writing an essay, in simple terms there's no difference between a Waterstones special edition, an independent bookshop special edition (not covered by this post) or an Illumicrate (or other boxes) special edition as they all have extra finishes and they all TCM, meaning sales are registered and counted towards bestseller lists. however there is a perceived difference for many consumers that Illumicrate editions are specialer than Waterstones or indie because they are exclusive (so are Waterstones and indie), and often are only available through mystery subscription boxes (you don't know which book or items are in the box, only the theme) or semi-transparent boxes (title is known, possibly some of the finishes, none of the items) or through single purchases of a limited nature (finishes often not revealed), which this one is.

so to sum up, the Illumicrate edition is functionally the same, but it has a different status, and perceived higher value, attached to it. considering the RRP was £23 for the Illumicrate edition but only £18.99 for ART and £16.99 for AML, this adds to the perceived higher value/status. With me so far?

the finishes on this book are:

matt lamination case (cheaper than wibalin), however printed in 4 colour

dustjacket made of some kind of plastic (I can't tell from touch which kind), which, at the printers my company works with, costs about 10-15%, of what a dustjacket of say 125gsm coated paper with matt lamination finish would cost

title digitally printed on the dustjacket

no spot uv, no embossing, no foil

sprayed edges in one colour with a digitally printed fore edge in 4 colour

does this look cool as fuck though? yes. does it look expensive? not if you know how books are made and what they cost to make. I expect this was cheaper to print than ART because dropping foil, spot UV and embossing alone is a huge saving. and ngl I was expecting the same kind of finishes on APU as for ART, perhaps with all 3 edges digitally sprayed instead of just the fore edge, perhaps with the title foiled on the spine instead of printed on. maybe it would even have endbands. so to open the parcel to see this instead was a delight, because it's different. you can see the case underneath the dust jacket! you get a fun 3D effect with the plastic overlay!

I'm not saying that the Illumicrate edition is cheap garbage, the point I'm making is manifold:

moving away from Waterstones special edition to Illumicrate special edition will make a lot of consumers thing this book is The Shit

the Illumicrate edition indeeds Looks like The Shit

you don't always need expensive finishes to wind up with a Cool end result

in conclusion: Illumicrate call me I want to talk business

man I do wish my copy of AML had a cooler fore edge though so they could all match

#personally the only thing I dislike about the Illumicrate edition is that I don't like touching plastic #so I will be leaving the dust jacket off while reading it #(I do that anyway so the jackets don't get damaged but in this case leaving it off will make the book look like a misprint bc no title!) #and before anyone asks: no I will not be decorating that fore edge myself #my bookbinding skills do not extend to fore edge painting #I have done a few solids but actually drawing patterns? nope nope nope #a marvellous light #a restless truth #a power unbound #freya marske #book production #books

[muspeccoll]

Welcome to Wordy Wednesday

Introducing #WordyWednesday, a series from our online rare book glossary! This week’s word: Fore-edge painting. The fore-edge of a book is the outermost edge of its leaves when it is closed. Sometimes, artists would paint a design on this surface, which is visible only when the book is closed and its leaves slightly fanned out. It was mainly practiced in the 17th and 18th centuries but is still done as an artistic flourish today. (Technically the top of a book is called the “top” and the bottom the “tail,” but fore-edge painting can be done on any of these surfaces.)

(via Facsimile — Gloss · Rare Books: A Glossary · Special Collections and Archives)

#wordy wednesday #fore edge painting #bookarts #rare books #special collections #bookhistory #mizzou libraries #john henry #mizzou #university of missouri #libraries #muspeccoll #columbia mo

[renabooksandart]

There are many depictions of the iconic fight about Troja in artworks though history. One of the best in my opinion is a unique vase of the Berlin painter (505 to 460 BC) you can find in the British Museum today. It was painted in the early classical Attic red-figure style (the one we automatically associate with greek vase paintings today). He depicted the epic climax of the Trojan War, the battle between Achilles and Hector. Both heroes are supported by their patrons, Athena and Apollo.

I tried to use every element you can find on this vase and include it in my fore-edge painting. So, this fore-edge painting is my attempt to change my favourite vase into book form.

Whenever I read the Iliad (honestly, it's so good!!! You have to give it a try and just open it at any page and read it out loud) I just love the thought, that humans have read the same words as I do for thousands of years.

#book art #homer's iliad #hector of troy #achilles #book edge painting #classic books #my art #trojan war #apollo #athena #the iliad #greek myth art #berlin painter #fore edge painting

[glitterchloroform]

Here's the money shot on video

#the goldfinch #donna tartt #fore edge painting #book art #book arts #my things

[newlullabies]

Custom Fore Edge Paintings by JoyfullyTessaStudios on Etsy

#fore edge painting #magical #lotr #magic #cottagecore #art #painting #artists on tumblr #faecore #fairycore