New Record For Old Cup
Two days before the eagerly awaited Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 Final, the oldest existing FA Cup trophy was sold at auction yesterday for £478,400 - a new world record for an item of soccer memorabilia.Two days before the eagerly awaited Arsenal v Manchester United 2005 Final, the oldest existing FA Cup trophy was sold at auction yesterday for £478,400 - a new world record for an item of soccer memorabilia.
It’s a replica of the original trophy, which was stolen in 1895 from the shop window of William Shillcock in Birmingham.
Having been expected to attract up to £300,000, the successful bidder was Birmingham City chairman David Gold in the auction of football memorabilia held at Christie’s in South Kensington, London.
It was presented to winning teams between 1896 and 1910 and during its lifetime it was won by Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Bury, Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday, Everton, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United and Newcastle United.
It was presented to Lord Kinnaird in 1910 to mark his 21 years service as president of the Football Association and has remained in the family ever since.
Christie’s said the second and oldest version of the FA Cup was arguably the most important item of football history ever to be offered for sale.
Their head of sporting memorabilia, David Convery said: “Football sales started in 1989 and this is by and large the most impressive result. It illustrates the growing strength of the sporting memorabilia market and I was incredibly pleased to be able to offer for sale football’s greatest prize.”
The highest price Christie’s have previously recorded for football memorabilia was £157,750 for the shirt worn by Brazilian legend Pele in the 1970 World Cup Final while the previous worldwide record was the £254,500 paid in 1997 for a copy of the Jules Rimet World Cup Trophy which was won outright by Brazil in 1970.
Former England international Alan Ball also auctioned his 1966 World Cup winning medal and cap at Christie’s yesterday, and also attracted world record amounts.
At the age of 21, ‘Bally’ was the youngest member of England’s iconic squad and, in the heat of July, gave a tireless performance in the unforgettable 4-2 extra-time victory over West Germany at Wembley.
His winning medal went for £164,800 - a world record for a football medal and an item of memorabilia from the 1966 World Cup. The previous record was held by England keeper Gordon Banks’s World Cup medal which sold for £124,750.
Alan’s cap made £43,200 - now the highest price paid for an international footballer’s cap - beating the previous record of £37,600 for Sir Geoff Hurst’s 1966 World Cup cap.
The above prices include the buyer’s premium.