Taso Mathieson Grand Prix Racing 1906-1914 book with signed souvenir cover

A highly detailed and superbly illustrated standard work by Taso Mathieson on pre First World War Grand Prix racing. Printed on gloss paper with many b/w photographs (many quite large) and maps throughout. It is a fabulous pictorial history of the Grand Prix de l’A.C.F. from 1906 to 1914 inclusive. The pictures come from a selection of over 10,000 negatives, including the complete Branger collection and the Monde et Camera files and from them ex-racing driver T.A.S,O. Mathieson has spent part of his exile in Sintra choosing 320 with which to illustrate his unique book. These splendid pictures are reproduced on fine quality art-paper, many of them the full 10 in. x 12 in. page size, most of them very large, and because most are from the original glass plates the detail of cars, drivers and backgrounds is superb. The text supporting them, with a clear circuit map of each race, is undramatic and factual and brings to light some significant fresh facts about the pre-First World War French Grand Prix races. The lap positions and final results are given in tabular form, these tables, it is claimed, being the product of infinite trouble on the part of Gies Pluim, who has also compiled very interesting specification tables relating to the competing cars. This magnificent book is mainly a photographic record and a superb addition to any motor racing historians book collection. The original slipcase accompanying the book has wear with tape repair to the spine, the book itself is in excellent condition with some brown spotting to the first flyleaf page. Also supplied with the book is a souvenir cover of Taso Mathieson in the 1946 Maserati 8c 3000 which has been signed in blue ink by Mathieson. Reference: BO-TASOGP0614SIG-01