Lupton Library recently had restoration and conservation work done on two damaged rare and valuable books from its Rare Book Collection. Both books were published in the 19th century and were gifts to the University years ago. The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens, was published in London in 1846 and was one of several Christmas books Dickens wrote, beginning with A Christmas Carol, in 1843. Because of the popularity of A Christmas Carol, his publisher persuaded Dickens to produce subsequent Christmas books, to coincide with the holiday. The Cricket on the Hearth was a gift to the University by Mrs. Louise Griffith, who had worked at the University in the Development Office from 1963 until 1975. Her grandfather, Hiram S. Chamberlain, had been a Chattanooga businessman, and was one of the original board of trustees when the University was founded in 1886. Mrs. Griffith donated many books to the library over the years. When sent to the conservators the book had detached covers, and a missing spine. The conservators made a new spine and re-attached the covers.


The other book was published in 1811, and has the stories Iphigenia at Taurus and Iphigenia at Aulis, by Euripides, in Latin and Greek. What makes this book unique is that it has a rare feature known as a fore-edge painting. Popular in Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries, a fore-edge painting was the hand painting of the fanned out gilded pages of the fore-edge of the book. The illustration is invisible until the pages are fanned out again, at a slant. What makes this title even more rare is that this is a double fore-edge painting, rare even among fore-edge painted books: The book was turned upside down and another, different scene was painted again on the fore-edge, giving it two different illustrations, each visible according to which side is up. This book was a gift to the University in the 1950s by alumnus Paul Jordan-Smith, a 1905 graduate of the University. Mr. Jordan-Smith went on to a literary career as an editor with the Los Angeles Times, and was also a collector of fine books. The Special Collections of Lupton Library has six of the rare books from his personal collection, including two plays extracted from a Second Folio of William Shakespeare, published in 1632. Over the years both covers had become detached from this book, and these were re-attached. These two books were sent to Etherington Conservation Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of the country’s leading restorers of books and rare documents. Both restored books barely show signs now of their damage. The Rare Book Collection of Lupton Library is part of the Special Collections, and contains over 5000 titles, some dating back several hundred years.