The Loving Cups
A New Year tradition born in the Potteries
At the beginning of the year, I wrote an article about football loving cups, pieces of pottery made in Stoke-on-Trent almost 90 years ago.
Spode made only 30 of these specially designed cups, described as ‘typical of the beautiful craftsmanship of the British pottery industry’. Each cup has three gold handles, all in the shape of the Staffordshire Knot. Three handles make the cup easier to share. Between each handle is a panel. One has the royal arms; another contains a shield stating Sir Francis Joseph presented the cups to commemorate the coronation of King George VI. The third panel shows a football ground with players in the red and white stripes of Stoke.
Stoke City president Sir Francis Joseph handed out loving cups to each of the 22 First Division clubs, plus the two who had been relegated. He also sent them to the King, the Football League, the Football Association, the British Museum, and to the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent to go in with the civic china. He asked each recipient to use the cup on New Year’s Day to drink their team’s health and toast the King.
Stoke gave the last of the 30 coronation loving cups to Rangers as a mark of gratitude when the Glaswegian side played in a benefit match in October 1937, to raise funds after 30 miners died in an explosion at the Holditch Colliery. Rangers keep the toast tradition and annually release a video giving some great glimpses of the beautiful cup.
This year I got curious about what happened to the other cups and decided to track down as many as I could. Most clubs responded. Some, like Stoke, Huddersfield, Charlton and Rangers, keep the tradition and use their cup at New Year. In all I managed to track down 18 of the 30 cups.
The National Football Museum looks after the ones given to Preston North End and the Football League and said that Sir Francis Joseph gave his cup to the Scottish FA in 1947, when he was a guest at a match at Hampden between Great Britain and Europe. This cup is now at the Scottish National Football Museum. The British Museum have no record of receiving a loving cup in 1937. Perhaps Sir Francis Joseph kept one back, eventually donating it to the Scottish FA. The FA too have no recollection of the gift, but Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s cup is currently in the Ladies’ Chamber within Stoke Town Hall, displayed alongside other ceramic items.
Leicester, Chelsea, West Brom and Derby have the cups on display at their grounds, while Liverpool’s is currently in their boardroom. Bolton Wanderers and Sunderland confirmed they still have theirs, but sadly Grimsby’s has vanished. Portsmouth’s is now in the Portsmouth City Museum, carefully repaired as at least one of the handles broke off in the past.
Everton’s also survives, but damage and repairs over the years mean the club no longer drink from it at New Year. Instead, the directors display the cup and explain the history at the first game of the new year.
Brentford’s loving cup broke into ‘many many’ pieces a couple of years ago and cost Bees United, who are building up a heritage collection, more than £500 to repair. Leeds and Wolves both wrote to say they are keeping an eye out for theirs.
Although Birmingham’s cup survived a fire during WW2, it doesn’t appear to have negotiated the more modern threat of a change of ownership. Malcolm McHenry, of Blues Matter History and Heritage, said:
‘We definitely had one. However, it’s not been seen since David Sullivan sold the club. We’ve tried – and indeed are still trying – to trace it. It’s a regular agenda item at our history and heritage meetings.’
Finally, I spotted a post on a Rangers fans chat board, which may well be a myth but is a funny tale. Karen Brady was visiting the trophy room at Ibrox. She saw the loving cup and heard the story behind it. Convinced the item looked familiar, she tried to think where she had seen it before – and realised it was the umbrella stand in her office…
Link to January 2025 article: