Winter Auction 2015 closing February 7
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/8/2015
The storied and fabled history of the Manchester United Football Club unfolds page after page. 850 of them in all, the pages are edged in silver leaf and contain more than 50 exclusive interviews and photo sessions, in this physically daunting but visually stunning oversized 23” x 22” (58.4 CM X 55.8 CM), 82-pound (37 KG) epic tome.
The red leather bound, limited edition (#811 of 10,000) volume (it is difficult referring to it as a simple book) bears the team’s logo crest on its cover and contains a page bearing the signatures of two club legends; longtime Manchester United manager (1986-2013) Sir Alex Ferguson and legendary midfielder Sir Bobby Charlton.
Sometimes referred to by American sports fans as the New York Yankees of the English Premier League Manchester United has won more league titles (20) than any English club. The club’s lengthy history dates back to 1878 when it was originally formed as the Newton Health LYR Football Club by the Carraige and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) depot and originally played matches against other municipal departments and rail companies.
The book’s 22 chapters delve deep into the details of the club’s evolution and are divided into various areas of interest including more than 400,000 words and 2,000 images with contributions from many of Britain’s most respected sports writers and photographers.
Chapter headings include: the Greatest; The 50 finest United players since the second World War, Munich; 6 February 1958, the moving story of the Munich air disaster (in which eight members of the club were killed in a plane crash), Culture; A look at where the club fits into the cultural and social development of Manchester and Religion; How Manchester United became the best supported club in the world, to name but a few.
Each Opus book in the series is presented in a handmade, silk covered, clamshell case and includes three spectacular gatefolds, measuring a tremendous 78 ½” x 19 ¾” (200 CM x 50 CM). Every copy was hand-stitched in Verona, Italy, bound in the finest quality leather. Like all of the volumes in the Opus series this book is a monster and you’ll need a sturdy coffee table (perhaps a Heavy Boy Concrete model with industrial strength caster wheels) to cart this most serious of books around.