The Painted Book
History of Fore Edge Painting
Fore Edge Paintings have existed in some form since the early medieval period, although they took the form of symbolic designs at this time. These had evolved into Heraldic designs by the 14th century that decorated the fore edge and were used to identify the books as they stacked on the shelf. The very first examples of hidden pictures beneath the book's fore edges date from the mid 17th Century in England.
100 years later, around the middle of the 18th Century, the first landscapes, portraits and religious iconography appear. These early examples were often painted in a sepia monochrome, with a slow transition to colour over the next two decades. Some of the best examples from this period were created by William Edwards of Halifax and his colleagues who were bookbinders and booksellers. The demand for these magical novelty books was so great that they even opened a branch in the prestigious Pall Mall of London. According to Stephen Foster a specialist book dealer, Their shop in Pall Mall is mentioned by Fanny Burney (also known as Madame d'Arblay), the 18th century London socialite who wrote an extensive diary as well as various novels.
A lot is made of the fact by some "Experts" that many of the books were painted before gilding. At the time, Book Collecting was still a rich man's hobby. The pages of a new book were often collected from the printer unbound and delivered to the clients favourite bookbinder where they were put into the covers of choice. This is why so many early editions appear in so many forms. It was the Book Binder who offered the extra service of having a painter decorate the the book's fore edges. Having sewed and collated the pages, they were painted before being cased and then gilded in the normal process of making the book. This was the routine way of producing a book, with the paintings as added and expensive extras.
The greatest majority of Fore Edge Paintings belong to a revival movement that coincided with the Arts & Crafts movement and its ideals of medievalism and high quality craftsmanship. As we have seen, traditionally the gilt would be added after fore-edge painting was completed but as the skill and techniques of the painters improved, it became possible to apply paintings to books that already had a gilt edge. Suddenly, artists were free to decorate books unhindered by the dictates of the book binders and began to undertake commissions for themselves. This brought about a re-blossoming of the craft.
Towards the end of the 19th century, artists and craftspeople were been influenced by the writings of William Morris, Elbert Hubbard and John Ruskin. Inspired by the romantic idealization of the craftsperson taking pride in his or her personal handiwork, many book decorators chose to shun the increasingly mechanized and cheap printing process of they own time. From the late 19th century through to the early 20th century many paintings were added to books originally published earlier in the 19th century. They believed that those older books were more deserving of their efforts, as they had been produced by fellow craftspeople on hand operated presses, on good quality paper. Others, including William Morris himself, set up small Book presses to produce high quality short runs of well designed books, harking back to the designs and craftsmanship of the medieval period. Arts & Crafts was not a style like "Art Nouveau" or "Art Deco" but more a set of ideals and attitudes about how an artwork was produced. They believed that the artifact should be made using nothing but the hands and the simplest of tools guided by the imagination to produce an artifact of beauty and vitality. Ruskin wrote " Men were not intended to work with accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions. If you will have that precision out of them you must unhumanize them"
In reaction to the increasing industrialisation and mass manufacture of cheap products, many artists open workshops to teach traditional crafts with Bookbinding and Edge decoration among the skills. In 1882 the Century Guild was started and produced the "Hobby Horse" magazine from 1884 through to 1892. It preached the ideals of Arts & Crafts as interpreted by the architects Arthur Mackmurdo and Herbert Horne, with input from the artists Clement Heaton and Selwyn Image. Here the annonymous medieval craftsman was praised for their works and modest lack of ego, for few ever signed their work. Influenced by these ideals, many fore edge artists sadly left their works unsigned. This has left us a great detective mystery, and sometimes a book can only be identified by the area that it came from, because although we do not know the individual, we do know something about the arts & crafts workshops that had sprung up all over Britain and America, and along with carpentry, metalwork, jewellery design; the art of book binding and decoration were taught.
In 1888 Charles Robert Ashbee formed "The Guild of Handicrafts" in the East End of London (at the same time as the infamous Jack the Ripper Murders were starting), where he set about teaching carpentry, metalwork, bookbinding and decoration. Many of the participants were recruited from the local area that was suffering an economic depression at the time, with high levels of unemployment. In 1902 the guild moved into the countryside of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire, where Ernest Grimson and Sidney Barnsley had already established Craft Workshops in the area.
In 1890 members of an evening class tutored by the designer Arthur Stansfield Dixon formed the "Birmingham Guild of Handicrafts". As well as practicing decorative bookbinding they also produced the magazine "The Quest" on their own press. There was also the School of Art in nearby Victoria Street that had Arthur Gaskin as its Headmaster. In the view of the Arts & Crafts movement the use of machinery was criminal if it undermined the dignity of humam labour. As a result the objects produced became very expensive because they were handmade.
Glasgow was introduced to the arts & crafts movement in 1893 by
a series of lectures given by Francis H Newbury, the then principal of the Glasgow School of Art. This was to give birth to what is now referred to as the Glasgow style epitomized in the works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Jessie M King. To the followers of the Atrts & Crafts outlook, the sense of fulfilment experienced in practising a craft was just as important as the pleasure gained from the artifacts produced.
Three years later, The London County Council opened The Central School of Arts with the sculptor Georger Frampton and the artist William Leathaby as directors. Among other notable craftspeople, George Jack, the chief furniture designer for Morris & Co, taught woodcarving and Gilding. Edward Johnston taught Calligraphy and illumination and Alfred Powell, who was a decorator for Wedgwood pottery taught how to paint and decorate objects. Again in 1901, The Artificers Guild was founded in Hammersmith London by Nelson Dawson & Edward Spencer. Two years later Dawson resigned and Spencer went into partnership with Montague Fordham, the owner of a prestigious West End Art Gallery who was also a former director of the Birmingham Guild of Handicraft. The gallery was also called the "Artificer Guild " and also sold jewellery by May Morris, William Morris's Daughter.
In 1913, Roger Fry opened the "Omega Workshops" in Fitzroy Square London. The shop sold a mixture of decorated objects by leading avant garde artists including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (subject of Ken Russell's film "The Savage Messiah"), Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Percy Wyndham Lewis. They disbanded in 1919.
Meanwhile America had been introduced to the principles of the arts & crafts movement in the 1870's when Benn Pitman arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio from England to promote his brother's new shorthand method. At the University of Cincinnati he started courses in wood carving and china painting. Among his students were Mary Louise Mclaughlin and Mari Longworth Nichols, the founder of founded Rockwood Pottery. Later in New York, Candace Wheeler started the Society of Decorative Arts in 1877. Two years later she started the "Associated Artists" with Louis Comfort Tiffany.
By the 1880's, the movement reached Chicago and influenced a young Frank Lloyd Wright and some other architects that went on to found the Prairie school. Also in Chicago was Hull house, this group was started in 1889 by Jane Adams and Ellen Gate Starr. In a poor district of the city they provided instruction in several crafts including bookbinding and decoration. In 1897 it became the Chicago Society of Arts & Crafts. Robert Riddle Jarvie was a regular in their art shows. In 1895 the Roycroft Press was established at East Aurora, New York by Elbert Hubbard. Gustav Sickley established a furniture workshop at Eastwood, New York in 1898 after returning from England and promoted the Arts & Crafts ideals through his magazine,"The Craftsman". Soon it seemed everybody in America was practicing a craft or "Hobby" in their spare time.
The First World war was to wipe out a generation. This was followed by a thirst for modernity in its survivors and then another World War. There then followed a period of austerity until the mid 1950's and early 1960's saw a growing revival of interest in collectible hand crafted artifacts. This again was partly due to a rejection of the mass produced article, especially among a better educated middle class.
Now at the beginning of the 21st century, the art of fore-edge painting is being is still been practiced by a handful of artists using a traditional technique that is at least 300 years old.