Cool discovery at the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa

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This is a year old but thought you might find it interesting.

A few days ago (Sept 2013) Colleen Theisen who helps with outreach and instruction at the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Iowa shared an amazing gif she made that demonstrates something called fore-edge painting on the edge of a 1837 book called Autumn by Robert Mudie.

Fore-edge painting, which is believed to date back as early as the 1650s, is a way of hiding a painting on the edge of a book so that it can only be seen when the pages are fanned out. There are even books that have double fore-edge paintings, where a different image can be seen by flipping the book over and fanning the pages in the opposite direction.





View more at: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/09/fore-edge-book-paintings/

One from the UK:

And a how to video:

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1. That's really cool!

Thanks for posting!