The Treasure Chest

Each month, The Treasure Chest will be updated to introduce a new Special Collection treasure.

 

Fore-edge Painting
   



 

A fore-edge painting is a watercolor design painted on the edge of a book. The design is usually only visible when the pages of the book are fanned out. The beginning of fore-edge painting can be traced back as early as the tenth century. The Special Collection department at Samford University has three paintings of this type.



 

Resources

Fore-Edge Painting from Conservation Online

Montgomery, James, Poems of James Montgomery, London, New York, Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, 1860

Tennyson, Alfred; Enoch Arden, London, Edward Moxon, 1864

Tennyson, Alfred, Poems, London: Edward Moxon & Co., Dover Street., 1865.

Weber, Carl Jefferson, Fore-edge Painting, a Historical Survey of a Curious Art in Book Decoration. Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y., Harvey House, 1966