The treasures held by the bookshelves in Jeff Chaddock’s Miranova home are not just of the literary variety.
The highly successful investment adviser began putting together his collection of unique, antiquated and usually leather-bound volumes, large and small, 15 years ago – by coincidence.
Their appeal: intricate watercolor paintings in each, often not related to the book title. The paintings are concealed until the pages are slightly bent, or fanned, to reveal intricate, colorful pictures on the page edges. Known as fore-edge painting, it’s a centuries-old art form rarely used today.
Most books in the collection – which Chaddock proudly is donating to the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at Ohio University – date to the 17th Century. When he does, it will be one of the five largest public collections in the nation.
“My goal is to have it keep its integrity,” he says.
That’s not Chaddock’s only goal, though. He also hopes the collection will stir in younger people an interest in books – an interest that faces stiff competition these days from rapid advances in electronics technology.
Chaddock envisions young people, parents and grandparents visiting the collection, and hopes it will generate “conversations that otherwise might not have been there,” he says.
Visitors, of course, won’t be able to handle the books and fan the pages to find the hidden, often beautiful artwork that was painstakingly painted on the fore-edges.
Chaddock deftly displays how the artists he called miniaturists created “hidden pieces of art.” He opens a leather-bound book, grasps the pages tightly and gradually bends or fans them, creating a slope on the long or fore side. That unveils a colorful, intricate painting done in painstaking detail.
“Books were prized possessions of households,” he says, as they were often protected from destruction in times or war, conflict or other catastrophes.
“Artists felt books were the best place to ensure posterity” of their work, he says. They were safer than paintings, which were more likely to be stolen or destroyed.
The books were placed in a vice-like device to hold fanned pages steady while artists or bookbinders painted fine lines with meticulous precision on the sloped surface so paint stayed only on the page edges. The edges were gilded to protect paintings.
Every once in a while, an artist would turn the book over after completing one painting, reverse the sloped fore-edge a
nd paint a different picture. In those cases, the fortunate book owner would have the opportunity to two paintings on the same fore edges.
Chaddock came upon the art form when, in 1998, he went to a Franklin County Veterans Memorial paper show, seeking vintage stock certificates to display in his residence. But he soon found himself struck by the fore-edge pictures; art and books are two of his passions.
He gradually acquired more volumes, usually from specialized bookstores or auctions. A few years ago, he made his largest purchase of 75 books from financially strapped St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, a women’s college near Terra Haute, Ind., that was disposing of the collection that had been donated.
Few still collect such books, and fewer still continue to paint them, Chaddock says.
Though much of Chaddock’s collection is a mere four centuries old, the art form dates the 10th Century, when shields and coats of arms were the preferred depictions. Those gradually gave away to landscapes, religious works and flowers. Sometimes, bookbinders made the paintings; others were by freelancers.
Architecture, activity and, peculiarly enough, women in hoop skirts are some of the frequent subjects depicted in Chaddock’s library.
The painting in A Handbook for Travelers in Ireland, featuring prominent buildings and women walking on a lawn, dates to 1844. Hidden in Lalla Rookh: An Oriental Romance, 1838, is a painting of running fox hunt hounds and horses crossing a stream. A Gallery of Famous English and American Poets has a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe and a shadow of a flying raven, alluding to his famous narrative poem. The initials of the artist, Martin Frost, are barely visible on the Poe painting.
Chaddock estimates his collection is worth $500,000 to $750,000 today, but in 20 years, it may be valued far less owing to the changing generational attitude about old things and literature.
Hypothetically, he likens it an estate auction sale of antiques that it might have sold for $20,000 a few years ago that might bring only $4,000 today.
“The younger generation no longer wants antique furniture, dishes and the like,” he says.
Placing the collection at OU speaks to Chaddock’s strong ties to the university, from which he graduated in 1988 with a degree in communications.
A native of Parkersburg W.Va., who grew up in Belpre, Ohio, Chaddock says that while in college, he followed an adviser’s urging to “save hard.” He began buying stock before graduating and went directly into the investment advisory business, where he has excelled.
He’s on the board of the Ohio University Foundation and the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio in Nelsonville, which combin
es efforts of several small-town foundations to help provide money for arts and music.
He owns and is remodeling a large mansion in Athens, once owned by an industrialist, that he envisions as a historic center one day. Not to leave out the largest school in the city where he keeps his collection, he also helps raise money for the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.
The man-on-the-go still maintains his obvious interest in OU as he prepares for a large piece of the book collection to move this fall. Over time, volumes will be circulated in and out of their Columbus base, and all will eventually be bequeathed to the university.
Chaddock will continue buying and contributing books as he strives to make the collection the most prominent in the country.
Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
