(FORE-EDGE PAINTING.) BIBLIA SACRA VULGATAE EDITIONIS. Folio, eighteenth-century red morocco, covers gilt-panelled, spines richly gilt in

seven compartments, with six raised bands, gilt-lettered in one, some wear to head of spine and along joints, fore-corners a little bumped; top and bottom edges gilt; bookplate. Antwerp, 1603 WITH AN EXPOSED FORE-EDGE PAINTING SIGNED BY JOHN T. BEER, entitled "Evil Tidings: Job. Ch.1" in the lower right hand corner. The fore edge depicts Job receiving the news of the destruction of his family and fortune. Weber describes Beer as the "most active and prolific amateur decorator of fore-edges in the latter part of the nineteenth century" (page 143). He lived at Rock Ferry near Liverpool, and is one of a small number who painted fore edges as a pastime rather than as an occupation. Typical of Beer's fore-edge paintings, this example is exposed, signed, and a source is given for the subject matter. In the Houghton Library at Harvard there is a Beer fore edge on a copy of Tschudi's Le Monde des Alpes which like the present example has both the top and bottom edges gilt. Another Biblia Sacra with a fore-edge by Beer is located in the Zion Research Library, Boston. Weber/Fore-Edge Painting, pages 143-48.