Creating pictures on the pages of books is a secret art, sometimes invisible at first glance, and revealing its beauty only when the books are closed in a certain way. This technique is known as "bleed paintings".
It is assumed that the practice of creating paintings on page edges originated in the 17th century in England, thanks to King Charles II and his beloved. Legend has it that she often “forgot” to return his books to the king, so he commissioned a court artist to design a method of identification for his personal library. This is how the technique of hidden paintings on edges appeared.
In the 18th century, this practice became especially popular thanks to the publisher of the Prince of Wales. At that time, this art symbolized luxury and high status.
Often multiple paintings appeared on massive books with many pages. It happened that there were two or more pictures - on the top and bottom edges of the pages.
The artwork is most often found in leather-bound books with gilded or speckled pages, which better hide the secret painting. This is a rare and endangered practice. This kind of painting is almost impossible to create using a printer, which makes the technique even more attractive for connoisseurs of antique publications.
But the pictures on the edges cause mixed reactions. Especially for collectors. After all, in order to see hidden works of art, it is necessary to turn the pages at such an angle that this can lead to damage to the book itself. There are known cases when, when trying to see secret paintings, the bindings were torn or the pages were damaged.
theepochtimes.com
The technique of edge paintings continues to delight and inspire researchers of book history. And it's quite possible that some of these hidden works of art are still hiding on bookshelves.
Source: theepochtimes.com
animalworld.com.ua
epochtimesviet.com
