A one-of-a-kind mug commemorating West Bromwich Albion’s 1892 FA Cup final victory over Aston Villa is going up for auction next month with a price tag of £10,000.
Made specially to celebrate the Baggies’ historic 3-0 win, the incredibly rare piece of memorabilia is stirring up interest among football collectors and West Brom fans eager to get their hands on this slice of club history.
A mug made to celebrate West Brom’s 1892 FA Cup win.
It is believed to be the only surviving mug from the 1892 FA Cup win, which predated the finals being held at Wembley. Nearly 34,000 spectators witnessed the match at Kensington Oval, where Alf Geddes, Sam Nicholls and John Reynolds scored West Brom’s goals against rivals Villa.
The mug is being auctioned online on behalf of the great-grandson of Baggies legend Billy Bassett. Outside right Bassett played in the 1892 final and went on to become a director and chairman at the club.
Auction house boss Matt Bytheway said: “There’s a mystery around the mug. We don’t know how many were made or if they were given to players. I know all the big West Brom collectors and they’ve never had one – I’ve never seen one. It is incredibly rare.”
The seller, who wishes to remain anonymous, stipulated that 50% of the sale proceeds must go to charity.
Bassett holds the unfortunate distinction of being West Brom’s first player sent off, in 1894 for “unparliamentary language”. He remained associated with the club for 50 years until his death in 1937 aged 68, when over 100,000 people lined the streets for his funeral procession.
This slice of Baggies history is sure to brew up interest when the auction goes live in February.
Football is the world’s game and international football memorabilia is now hugely lucrative. The likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are famous (and rich) in a way that those 1892 players couldn’t conceive.
But the UK is still the home of the game, and British football heritage has its own value. The oldest FA Cup was auctioned for nearly £0.5 million in 2005, before being sold on for over £0.75 million in 2020. The oldest known set of rules of the game was sold by its owners, Sheffield FFC, for nearly £900,000 in 2011.
