How I got my copy of "Marcello Gandini Maestro of Design"

I had been wanting the "Marcello Gandini Maestro of Design" book set for a long time. I didn't hear about them when they first came out, otherwise I would have ordered them new. The prices folks were asking for them were insane and the day Gandini died I decided I better find a set quick before everyone thinks they're worth even more. I did manage to find a set on eBay with the week, and it was the best price I had ever seen (but still expensive). The seller was very responsive and I ended up buying the books the third week of March, 2024. The seller shipped them the same day, but unfortunately, the United States Post Office promptly lost them.

The seller refunded my money immediately, so there was no loss on my end, and he had the shipment insured so he got his payout as well. But I knew I would never find another set of these for that price (his price was literally half of the lowest price from any other seller I could find on the internet). I did file a "Lost Parcel" search with the USPS, but I had little hope.

Two days ago, the books showed up on my doorstep!

Five months it took for those books to arrive, and I was almost afraid to open the box as I figured they'd be fairly well destroyed. They were not, in fact, they're in better shape than the seller lead me to believe… they're actually quite perfect. The books even included the original box when they shipped new.

In the end, I got these beautiful books absolutely free… I just had to wait five months for them.

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Have them as well. Part of the ‘design collection’
Great tribute to a great designer.

 

There is a dedicated thread for these kind of messages!

 

I’m glad you got them for free because Dalton Watson has a second edition coming out. Now, why the need for a revised edition is necessary so soon after the original leads me to believe that the original wasn’t as thoroughly researched as it could have been. It implies that the first edition…which many of us paid up for..will now be outdated. How much new information could have been discovered? The new book was teased on DW’s web site well before Gandini’s death.

I wonder if the replacement would have been free if they weren’t interested in shifting some unwanted inventory off of the shelves, but that’s the skeptic in me.

 

I debated that. If you're referring to the "Official book collectors thread" I really didn't think this post belonged there. Granted, I didn't read the entire 16 years of that thread, but the last several pages seem to be only talking about new books. These Gandini books are old, released in 2016 — eight years ago! Next time I post about a book I'll put it in that thread.

 

To be fair, the first set of books didn't cover everything, I'm sure there's plenty more! This set was released in 2016 and was two volumes and cost $300 new. What's coming out this year is one volume and costs $165. It's not a "revised" edition, but likely more of a supplement. It's not titled as "revised" either, but rather "revisited". It looks designed to complement the original volumes.

https://www.daltonwatson.com/Marcello-Gandini-Maestro-of-Design-REVISITED-p/gandini-revisited-reg-edition.htm

 

I agree but my point it that for my $300 I expected that there wouldn’t be a need for revisions, supplements, revisitations or any other follow-up, especially in such a short time, in publishing terms. It implies a less than maximum effort on the part of the author and publisher. To be honest I was disappointed in the first set. It’ll be difficult for me to justify buying the new book. I’ll wait for reviews.

 

The description says nothing about revisions, new facts etc. It says "This book encapsulates the most crucial, as well as some of the lesser-known gems, presenting them in a more accessible format."

 

To me that sounds like mostly a repetition of what’s already been published. I think Chris did well to get the two volume set…and you can’t beat the price!

 

Sadly, I’ll have to procure one.

 

For free?
Every time something like this has happened to me/Ebay, I've found it easy to reach out to the seller + make them whole.

You do you.

 

It sounds like the only one out of pocket is the insurance underwriter for USPS. Reaching out and making contact with them might be difficult, if not impossible...

 

The seller is "whole" - it was insured. The only entity out of pocket on this is the USPS. However, if the seller were to contact me and tell me the USPS is seeking reimbursement for their insurance payout, then I would totally pay the seller again. But the USPS can eat it. Oh, and for the record, the seller has access to and gets notifications from the USPS regarding the lost parcel search, so he knows I have it now.

 

Well, if the seller gets notifications from USPS re "parcel search", then USPS knows you got it too, correct?

Nah.
I'm expecting a level of competence from USPS that I've never encountered before.

 

Yeah, that would definitely require some competence from them that, truly, I have never seen either! Let's hope they know I have it since, well, they ultimately delivered it. But then again, maybe they have no idea!

 

As we discussed in the other topic there are a lot of mistakes in that very poor book. One for instance is crediting Marcello Gandini for the Citroën Camargue, but it's Marc Deschamps who penned it, as Gandini didn't had the time to work on it – Gautam credit Deschamps in his last book about Wedge design, so it seems he made at least some research.
If I remember correctly, he also made the usual mistake of saying that the Citroën BX was inspired by the Volvo Tundra, when in fact the opposite was true.

These are the ones that struck me, because I know the history of Citroën design, but I'm afraid there's a lot more: a lot of commonplaces and legends, but very little information that's been properly verified.

I have to say that for the price of this book, there are really very few photos or interesting documents in it, and the vast majority of the information can already be found on Wikipedia...
I wouldn't recommend any of this author's books, I've leafed through others and it's the same story. A lot of text for nothing, photos of no interest... I'll pass.

 

I would venture to say that much the same could be said for the rest of the books that Gautam Sen (the author) has published through Dalton Watson...

 

Well now, not very positive.
I have a very extensive history of car design library. It's an esoteric subject with few books available. I was compelled to add said book to the collection. Are there flaws, yes of course. And as a designer, the profession is rife with individuals who claim credit for any given design, deserved or not. "Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan." But I won't go there at the moment.


Today I received a book by the same author. Haven't had the opportunity to read it yet, but we'll see if what the author says is closer to the facts or not.
Stay tuned as they say.
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I have his book on Lamborghini design (Dalton Watson) & I would venture to say that that one is probably my favourite book on Lamborghini that has appeared in the last few decades (yes, including Kidston's Miura specialty book). Not perfect of course, but does contain lots of rarer/unseen images, testimonies from relevant people and dispelling of common myths. One of the very few $200+ titles recently released that actually is value for money.

 

Good to read.

I have not yet read his books but I have met Gautam several times at Retromobile and Chantilly where I will probably meet him again in 9 days at this year's concours. He is very pleasant, gregarious and funny. Helpful also which is not always the case among authors. We exchanged emails recently and he is amazingly productive, I wish I was as fast as he. He has been a bit unwell which is why he did not fly to Monterey last month.

 

Do you have a contact email address for him? I'd like to reach out to him.
You can message me if that makes more sense. Thanks!

 

See your PM.

 

I had a quick look at that one at a bookstore. All I can say is that a book on wedge design that doesn't mention the Carrabo until page 170 must be full of a lot of blah, blah, blah. I like books that get straight to the point, not those that are 400 pages long and you can't really understand why.

 

That is basically my impression too of everything I have seen from Gautam Sen's Dalton Watson books. You have seemingly endless two-page spreads with one, two, or three photos and a tiny caption or two. As you mentioned, it results in a large-format 400 page hardback book that reads much like a magazine. Albeit one that costs $150 or more. Not exactly my idea of a good value or, for that matter, a good book in the most general sense.

 

That said, Dalton Watson has also published some very good books, so I won't criticise them here