> A fore-edge painting is a scene painted on the edges of book pages. There are two basic forms, including paintings on fanned edges and closed edges. For the f

> A fore-edge painting is a scene painted on the edges of book pages. There are two basic forms, including paintings on fanned edges and closed edges. For the first type, the book's leaves must be fanned, exposing the pages' edges for the picture to become visible. For the second closed type, the image is visible only while the book is closed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore-edge_painting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore-edge_painting > One of the most unusual types of book decoration is fore-edge paintings. These are books which have one or more of the top, fore or bottom edge painted https://www.abaa.org/member-articles/a-collectors-primer-to-the-wonders-of-fore-edge-painting https://www.abaa.org/member-articles/a-collectors-primer-to-... > Fore-edge paintings are scenes, portraits, or designs that are painted onto the edge of a book. Although some of these paintings are visible when the book is closed, such as is the case in the photo above, much of the time these paintings are covered over by gilded edges, so that the paintings only become visible when you fan the pages in the manner illustrated below. https://library.wustl.edu/news/fore-edge-paintings/ https://library.wustl.edu/news/fore-edge-paintings/