Gold sells second edition of FA Cup 15 years after he bought it
Tuesday 29 September 2020 18:03, UK
West Ham co-owner David Gold has sold a historic edition of the FA Cup for £760,000 at auction.
The trophy was the second version of the FA Cup and was used from 1896 to 1910. The original FA Cup was stolen in 1895 and never recovered.
Gold sold the cup at auction house Bonhams, which described it as "a unique piece of English football history - the oldest surviving FA Cup presented to the winning teams between 1896 and 1910, including Manchester United, Manchester City, Everton, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur".
Gold had bought the trophy in 2005 from the family of the former footballer and FA president Lord Kinnaird and claimed at the time he was preserving the piece of history for the country.
Until recently, the cup had been displayed in the National Football Museum in Manchester.
Managing director of Bonhams Knightsbridge, Jon Baddeley, said: "We are very proud to have been entrusted with the sale of this legendary cup.
"It embodies so much of the early history of our national game that it can, without exaggeration, be described as a national treasure."
The trophy, which is 50.7 centimetres high with the plinth, bears the winners' names from 1872 onwards, including Wanderers, winners of five of the first seven finals, including three in a row.
The first winners of the new trophy in 1896 were Sheffield Wednesday, who beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 in the final to claim their first major honour.
