AN IMPORTANT TROPHY RELATING TO TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR AND THE FIRST EVER FOOTBALL TOUR OF SOUTH AMERICA BY PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH CLUBS [THE LONDON CLUB JOI

AN IMPORTANT TROPHY RELATING TO TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR AND THE FIRST EVER FOOTBALL TOUR OF SOUTH AMERICA BY PROFESSIONAL ENGLISH CLUBS [THE LONDON CLUB JOINTLY TOURED WITH EVERTON FC] A silver-plated Art Nouveau football trophy cup & cover commemorating the match Between the Uruguayan League XI and Tottenham Hotspur played at Grand Parque Central, Montevideo, 10th June 1909, inscribed with the match details either side of the top of the bowl, the cover surmounted by a figure of a footballer, overall height 38cm. 15in. In 1909 Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, historically, embarked jointly on the first football tour to South America by English professional football clubs. The tour almost got off to a disastrous start with the Tottenham Hotspur party missing a train at Waterloo Station and thereby missing the sailing of the HMS Araguaya from Southampton. They had to privately charter a tug to catch up with the ship to complete the three week sea voyage. The tour started with what was the first ever football match on South American soil by two professional clubs. The exhibition match was played just a matter of hours after the teams had disembarked in Buenos Aires. Before a crowd of 10,000 Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 with Everton. Spurs' other matches comprised an 8-0 win over the Uruguayan League XI in Montevideo on the 10th June, for which the cup being auctioned here was presented. On the 13th June Tottenham defeated Argentinos 1-0 before beating an Argentinean League XI 4-1 three days later, both matches played in Buenos Aires. Spurs then played Everton again going down 4-0 to the Merseysiders in the capital, before travelling to Rosario where they defeated the Liga Rosarina XI 9-0 on 20th June. Tottenham's final tour game was on 24th June back in Buenos Aires, the 5-0 win over Alumni, the team founded by the Scot Alexander Watson Hutton known as the ''Father of Argentine Football'' (see lot 1232). The tour generated a profit of £300 which was used to develop football further in South America. A further legacy of the tour was that a group of young workers in the Chilean port of Valparaiso set up their own team which they christened Everton (de Vina del Mar), which still play to this day and are currently in Primera B of the Chilean Football League. One of Tottenham's tour party was Walter Tull, the first mixed race player to win a medal in senior English football, and who later died a war hero in the Battle of the Somme having been the first black commissioned officer in the history of the British Army. Tull signed permanently for Spurs after the conclusion of the tour. There is a story in the annals of Tottenham Hotspur history that the party acquired a parrot with they brought back to England on the voyage from South America. Tull and team-mate Fred Wilkes claimed third prize in the ship's fancy dress carnival as Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday. According to Tottenham's records, it is said that the bird died on the very day in 1919 that Arsenal were controversially elected to the top flight of the Football League at the direct expense of their north London rivals.