Official book collectors thread

John Edgar was recently covered by a series of articles by his son William in Cavallino #235 - 238.

Some years ago there was a series of articles on John von Neumann also in Cavallino.

 

I hope my fellow book collectors will forgive me for this - showing a non-Ferrari book, but it's an era that most of use seem to be interested in, and it's also a great book. "Lola; The T70 & Can-Am Cars" by Gordon Jones. It's a whopping 576 pages with more than 700 photos! It's been well researched and has a full and comprehensive race records section. IMHO, the ultimate Lola T70 book.
And, unlike some books discussed here recently, it's a very modest £95! That's a lot of book for the money. More photos here: https://www.evropublishing.com/collections/all-books/products/lola-the-t70-and-can-am-cars
Nathan
(Note: I have no connection to the publisher, although I'm proud to say that Gordon has been a friend for many years)
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Looks great. Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered a copy based on this info, and I like Lola T70s a lot. This will fit in well with my other three Lola books.

 

Nathan is spot-on, its a very good book at a sensible price. Have not had a good look yet, but will start on Aston-engined cars which I wrote a feature on... Pics on these I have not seen before.

 

Bought my copy last week excellent book.Very much in the style of the editors GT40 The Ford that beat Ferrari book of a few years ago
Shop around,bought mine for 54 pounds including postage,well happy.

 

This is my 1956 original yearbook, 64 years old, but in new condition.
Old, original yearbooks in perfect shape, they do exist.
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The same can be said about this marvel: 1953 Yearbook, hardly touched since it was printed 69 years ago.
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The new 1949 Ferrari Yearbook has also made a recent return to.

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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-10464013/Stunning-coffee-table-book-Italy-contains-100-breathtaking-photos-Italys-finest-cars.html

 

I think that I have 3 copies of the Merritt 1949 reprints.

 

These are new reprints that diff in size (30.5 x 24 cm?) I believe compared to the Merritt effort.
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Years ago I attended the large estate auction of a car collector. There were 350 lots and the catalog was listed online. Even though the weather was miserable(fog, freezing rain) I drove 150 miles to attend in person. Moments before the auction was to start the online bidding server crashed and zeroed-out all of the bids. The auctioneer insisted on beginning the sale on time--internet be damned. There was no online opposition and I think that I bought the first 10 or 12 lots for peanuts; after that bidders woke up and resubmitted their bids.
All of the Ferrari stuff was at the very beginning and the very end of the sale. There were only two remaining lots of interest to me; one of them described as "Lot of Ferrari literature" had a 330 GT 2+2 brochure, a GTE brochure, some Mondial/308 stuff and a Merritt 1949 reprint. With perhaps 10 lots remaining some young dude swaggered in looking confident and mildly hung over. He only came to bid of the lot of Ferrari literature. I think that I bailed out at $200, but the dude was not to be denied. He went hammer and tongs against an online bidder and he won the lot for $3500. After the sale I introduced myself to him and asked him why he bid so aggressively on the lot? He walked over and smugly held up the Merritt reprint. "This is why" he said, " Do you know what these sell for?" I told him, "Yes I do. You need to turn it over." He flipped it over and turned white as a sheet--and desperately tried to break the sale.
No dice.

 

I am wondering what Ferrari is doing against all these reprints around recently (I don't mean the Merritt stuff, who produced somewhat of an official reprint in 1969).

Usually, Ferrari reacts very aggressively against anyone using any name or trademark or colour or any slightest hint to Ferrari without their permission. Now, they accept that the whole market is flooded with cheap reprints.

But still, there is one way to keep originals and reprints apart: That's the (in best case) lovely smell of old paper which you cannot copy. Recently, I bought a 1952 yearbook, and it aired the smell of history (and I don't mean a bad smell like it had been wet or something).

 

I suggest they create a new scheme where you can send your books to Ferrari and, for a fee, they can tell you that they're genuine. Ideally you should repeat it every year in case something changes so they aren't genuine any more. Also, if you have perhaps had the cover repaired in the past, they can repair it again (for a fee) so that it looks the same but is an official Ferrari repair rather than something by any old random expert book repairer.

 

But can they infuse “the smell of history”?

 

maybe 'just' the smell of money...

 

Love that! And Marcel will tell us who owned the books before and on which day which bookshop sold it... (just kidding with all respect - love your research, Marcel!)

 

FWIW I own the entire original and period printing set/material including all original photographs for the 1959 factory yearbook. This came to me from the printing company. It means that I could easily completely reprint the entire 1959 yearbook from page 1 to the last one, if I wanted to do so. It also includes everything about the exact layout.

Marcel Massini

 

Usually when I new book is announced I know instantly if I want to own a copy or not. This is one of the ones I was not immediately sure about:

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I considered it for a few days before Christmas before deciding that I would go for one. I was not sure what to expect as the information about the book was a bit sketchy and this is the first time the FOCOGB have produced a yearbook. I felt the same about it as I did when on my way to the National Ferrari Owners Day (one of the events covered in the book): it sounds like it could be good but I will have to see it for myself to be certain.

The book does its job very well. It is described by the Chairman as being "largely picture-led rather than heavy with text" and by the Sectretary as being a "photo album" and a "coffee table book". It is all of these things although I am never sure how complimentary the term "coffee table book" really is. I was lucky enough to have been to a few of the events covered and so have my own photographs but what I know the Club likes are pictures of people and I do not do these. However, people and places change and in years to come when the cars are still around and some of the people are not then the images will be more interesting than my own. Although this is a hard bound book I would consider it to be more a piece of memorabilia than a great resource, in the same way that I would view a guidebook bought at an event, or a magazine bought after a race that contains the report of the action (or lack of). I would buy both of these with a view to keeping them to refer back to in the future and this yearbook will be the same, probably in the same way as the Ferrari yearbooks.

It is difficult to make a recommendation here for a number of reasons. There are 250 copies which are only available to club members and there is only one book allowed per membership. Therefore, unless you are a member (or know of one who does not want the book who can buy one for you) owning one is not going to be an option. I also feel that if the US, French, German, Dutch, or any other national FOC produced a similar book that it would not have the same interest to me and wonder if overseas enthusiasts would feel the same about a book that covers mostly British events with only small sections devoted to F1, new models (296 GTB, 812 C and SP3) and other aspects of FOC life.

Unfortunately it appears that the box was dropped before the book was delivered and the dent on the packaging have been transferred to the top right hand corner of the book. It looks worse on my photograph above than it really is and I am not going to ask for a replacement copy as I have been supplied with the number that I asked for. I have emailed the Club regarding this and they were sympathetic and I suspect would have taken action if I had asked them to.

This is going to become an annual publication and ultimately my opinion is that the book is more than good enough to want to order later this year and I look forward to building up a number of them over the years. I guess this is all that matters!

 

I think it's already been mentioned here, the French FOC has had an annual magazine or book for many years (I have all years since 1996). In its current form of a real hardcover book with about 190 pages it began in 2009. From 2009 to 2020 the number of copies has increased from 700 to 800 (or actually 699 to 799).

The 2021 issue will probably be given to members attending the annual general meeting this Saturday (members not attending will receive it by mail).

 

Interesting. Thank you.
I wonder why they don't inform the members about this? I am a member since 43 years only......

Marcel Massini

 

I knew about it from the club themselves. Do you receive their newsletters by email? I know you receive the magazine and I am sure it was shown in there too but I do not have the latest copy easily available to check.

 

Nothing in the magazine.
I have emailed them and will hopefully get a reply.........

Marcel Massini

 

The book can be ordered from the club shop in the member's section of their website.

 

FOC UK answered today to my mail, Chris Leach, and I called them this Friday morning and ordered a few copies. Glad that I learned thru fchat (by your post) about the existence of this new publication, thank you Robert.

Marcel Massini