The South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup of 1871 – an auld urn hard won some 155 years ago against this Saturday night’s opponent Melbourne - can rightly be considered the Carlton Football Club’s Holy Grail.
Sadly, the original vessel has been lost to history for more than a century, its whereabouts unknown since the 1920s.
This is the story not of that goblet, but of the painstaking research that led Carlton to uncover the closest thing to it still in existence: a near-identical piece, crafted by the same silversmith from the same mould, and carrying its own distinct thread of Carlton provenance.
Handcrafted prior to the 1870 season by Collins Street silversmith William Edwards, the original item, availed by the South Yarra Football Club in late 1869, was one of a number of trophies contested by teams in the early colonial years - prior to the advent of the Victorian Football Association competition in 1877 of which Carlton were inaugural Premiers.
The Australian sterling silver goblet was to be presented on an annual basis to the victor of a one-off match involving the two highest-placed metropolitan teams in what was then a competition involving Albert-park, Carlton, Hobson’s Bay Railway, Melbourne and South Yarra .
Despite protests from Albert-Park, Melbourne was adjudged inaugural winners of the South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup in 1870.
The following year, on the afternoon of Saturday, October 7, Carlton's 18-man team challenged Melbourne for the Cup on a neutral ground at Emerald Hill, the site of the Lakeside Oval. Captained by John Donovan, the Carlton players emerged from the three-hour contest as two goal-to-nil victors, with Jim ‘Sprinter’ Clark and Billy Dedman the goalkickers.
When the South Yarra Football Club folded in 1872, Carlton was ultimately granted perpetual ownership of the goblet, which carried the inscription "SOUTH YARRA" PRESENTATION CHALLENGE CUP WON BY CARLTON FOOTBALL CLUB SEASON 1871”. The goblet was also photographed by Hewitt Photographers of 95 Swanston Street and featured on a carte-de-visite (a Parisian form of calling card). Until recently, the carte-de-visite remained the only known visual record of the Challenge Cup, which disappeared more than 100 years ago.
The original goblet’s last known whereabouts can be sourced to 1924 when a correspondent for The Herald newspaper revealed the existence of a letter penned by a Mr J. A. Power, who wrote that he was in possession of the said item which was presented to one of the Club’s founders Thomas P. Power at the Annual Meeting of 1885.
The correspondent noted that the-then Carlton President and former player John Gardiner was endeavouring to obtain the goblet, but it is unlikely that Gardiner ever fulfilled this objective - and a direct descendant of Tom Power has since advised that it was no longer in the Power family’s keep.
One hundred years later, on the recommendation of the then CEO Brian Cook in June 2024, Carlton sought to replicate the South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup, as featured on the carte-de-visite. In a subsequent search of 19th century sterling silver goblets in Australia, an item almost identical in appearance to the Challenge Cup surfaced on the antiquesreporter website.
The recently-discovered goblet was awarded to Collingwood hotelier and councillor Peter John Petherick in 1867 - and handcrafted in silver by the same silversmith William Edwards from the same mould thought to have been used for the 1871 version.
Incredibly, Peter’s son Julius Evan Petherick represented Carlton at senior level through seasons 1876-’79.
The Petherick cup sold at auction in 2018. The winning bidder was subsequently contacted by this reporter, and while he revealed he had on-sold the item, the new owner indicated his preparedness to avail the item to the Club for purchase.
In early August 2024, at a Carlton Football Club Heritage Committee meeting, the proposal to purchase the Petherick goblet was raised and unanimously endorsed. By month’s end, the Petherick goblet arrived safely at IKON Park in a Postpak – and the script featured on the original Challenge Cup was replicated on the reverse side of the item.
Today, the precious item is prominently displayed in the museum area of IKON Park. It serves as a reminder of the first piece of silverware ever earned by a Carlton team of 16 decades past – the coveted South Yarra Presentation Challenge Cup of 1871.
