PAINTED BINDING - BAXTER, Richard (1615-1691). Di

PAINTED BINDING - BAXTER, Richard (1615-1691). Die Stim Gottes. Welche die sunder zur busse berufft: oder Gottselige gedancken, über den II. Vers des 33. Cap. Des H. propheten Ezechiels. [A Call to the Unconverted.]

Translation by Johann Tonjola. Basel: Verlegung Johann Konig, getrucht bey J. Bertsche, 1674. 12mo (127 x 80 mm). Errata at end. Contemporary German vellum, gilt-tooled borders to covers surrounding central painted scenes (a town-view on the upper cover; and a nature scene on the lower), spine lettered in gilt. Fore-edge with a gilt, gauffered and painted image of Moses holding the Ten Commandments, the other edges gilt and gauffered. Condition: covers with gilt and painting flaked off making the images hard to discern, clasps lacking. a very rare example of an early painted binding combined with a painted fore-edge. Estelle Doheny, one of the greatest collectors of fore-edge paintings, had only a single example that was similar to this earliest form of the art (cf. Christie's 17 October 1988, lot 1305). This is a fore-edge painting that was not hidden only to be displayed when the leaves of the book are fanned, but is painted directly onto the flat surface of the fore-edge. The image was apparently produced by applying the gauffered outline first, this was then painted-in using three colors.