What do the pictures on the edges of old books hide?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Books are extraordinary things, but some can be truly magical. They look like ordinary old books, but they hide a curious little secret. A painting on the edge of a book is a painting painted on the edges of the pages; invisible when the book is closed.

This technique has been used by high-end book publishers throughout history, and in many cases, hidden works of art have not been discovered for decades or even centuries after their creation. Some may still be hiding on the bookshelves in your favorite vintage bookstore …

If you don’t flip through the pages, you don’t even know that there is something there. Works of art are most often found in leather-bound books with gilded or, better yet, speckled pages, which better hide the secret painting. This is a truly rare and disappearing practice (no, we're not talking about the drawings on the pages of your high school textbooks). This kind of picture is almost impossible to create with a printer, which makes the technique even more charming - how much effort it takes that almost no one will ever see.

Presumably, it was King Charles II of England who introduced this practice in the 1600s, when the Duchess of his court began to take books from him and "forget" to return them. The king commissioned a court artist to solve the problem, and together they devised a secret plan to identify books from his collection. According to 1969's "The Ancient Art of Fore-Edge Painting", Karl once visited the Duchess and saw one of his unreturned books on the shelves …

The technique became popular in 18th century England thanks to the publisher and bookbinder of the Prince of Wales. You need to look at some pretty valuable books to find edge painting. Many collectors and bibliophiles tend to disapprove of this practice, because in order to see these hidden works, it is required to open the book in a way that causes tachycardia in most antique dealers. If you're not careful, you can damage the binding or tear the inserts on the front or back cover of the book. Keep this in mind as you explore the bookstores.

Martin Frost is believed to be one of the only commercial artists in the world who was taught this art by a friend over 50 years ago. Antique specimens found on eBay or Etsy range in price from $ 300 to $ 1,000 if the book's secret is discovered by the seller.

And some of these rare books are more intricate and valuable than others, with more than one secret picture hiding at the edges. These are known as double-sided paintings - the pages can be opened in both directions to reveal two different pieces.

Thicker books can hide another option, which is called double paintings - when two separate paintings appear when opening a book.

There are also books that hide artwork at the top and bottom edges of the pages. Again, this is enough to make any book collector's heartbeat quicker.

Therefore, before we start looking in old books for the location of the gold of the Knights Templar - (because if it was not secretly applied to the edge of an ancient book, then where else could it be?) - just remember that books are valuable and fragile objects that should be treated with respect.

Where are we going now? Oh yes … let's rush to the rare books section!