A very early presentation relating to the original Crystal Palace (1861) Football Club, in the form of a silver-plated tankard glass-bottom pint tanka

A very early presentation relating to the original Crystal Palace (1861) Football Club, in the form of a silver-plated tankard glass-bottom pint tankard inscribed CRYSTAL PALACE FOOTBALL CLUB, BIG-SIDE-MATCHES SEASON 1873-4, CAPTAINS, ALLPORT & NEAME The original Crystal Palace Amateur Football Club were formed in 1861, playing their matches on the east side of the Palace grounds near Penge Common. The club was represented at the famous meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern on Long Acre, London, in 1863 , where the Football Association was formed with the objective of codifying the game with a universal set of rules. The club continued to have influence at the F.A. in its formative years and Palace's James Turner was the Association's Treasurer from 1864 to 1868. Crystal Palace were one of the 15 clubs who entered a side for the inaugural F.A. Cup competition of 1871-72. It is recorded that Palace's Mr D. Allport, presumably the same individual who is inscribed on this tankard, was of three Football Association members who were delegated with the task to purchase the first F.A. Cup trophy for ?20 which became known as the 'Little Tin Idol' and was competed for between 1872 and 1895, after which it was stolen from a shop window exhibition in Birmingham and never recovered. Crystal Palace made it to the semi-final of the first F.A. Cup competition. They also had representation in the world's first ever international match when their forward Charles Chenery was selected to play for England v Scotland in Glasgow in November 1872. Three other Palace players won England caps shortly after, goalkeepers Alexander Morten and Arthur Savage, and centre-forward Charles Smith. Morten and Smith both served on the F.A. Committee in the 1870s. The football club disappears without trace after their last recorded match v Wanderers on 11th December 1876. The best theory is that they were forced to leave their ground and had nowhere else to play. The name Crystal Palace re-emerged in English football in 1905 when the General Manager of the Crystal Palace Company formed a new and professional outfit, the club that still play at Selhurst Park today.