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Fore-Edge Paintings At Syracuse University, Jeff Weber

The Courier

MANY PEOPLE, EVEN BOOK collectors, have never seen or heard of fore-edge paintings,l though such paintings have embellished books for more than four centuries. The art form originated in sixteenth-century Italy. Fore-edge paintings appeared in England during the mid-seventeenth-century and were produced for about forty years (165 I -ca. 1690). They reappeared in 1785 with the firm of Edwards of Halifax. Since then, many thousands of books have received fore-edge paintings and, contrary to popular opinion, the great majority of them are products of the twentieth century. Indeed, probably ninety percent of fore-edges available for sale today were painted during …