FA Cup given top Antiques Roadshow value of more than £1m

Antiques Roadshow expert Alastair Dickenson spoke to BBC Sport's Gabby Logan about the trophy's history on Sunday's programme

The longest-serving FA Cup trophy has been valued at more than £1m on the Antiques Roadshow - making it the BBC show's most valuable item.

The cup was presented to winning teams from 1911 until it was replaced in 1992 by a new trophy of the same design.

It was valued in an edition of the long-running programme recorded in Harrogate and shown on Sunday evening.

The show's previous highest valuation was £1m for a model of Sir Antony Gormley's Angel of the North sculpture.

The cup valued by Antiques Roadshow expert Alastair Dickenson at Harrogate's Royal Hall was the third version of the FA Cup to be used.

It was made by Bradford firm Fattorini and Sons and - by coincidence - the first team to be presented with it were Bradford City, who beat Newcastle United in the 1911 final, after a replay.

The trophy was first presented at the 1911 FA Cup final replay between Bradford City and Newcastle at Old Trafford

The history of the FA Cup trophies

Manchester City won the FA Cup - in its second trophy incarnation - in 1904

The original FA Cup trophy, presented at the first final in 1872, was stolen from a Birmingham shoe shop window in 1895 while being displayed when Aston Villa were holders.

The second was replaced by the Football Association (FA) after 1909 winners Manchester United made a replica and the FA realised it did not own the copyright. The obsolete cup was given to Lord Kinnaird, who had been president of the FA for more than two decades.

It was bought at auction for £478,000 in 2005 by David Gold, then chairman of Birmingham City and now of West Ham United, and presented for permanent display at the National Football Museum, now based in Manchester.

The replacement - the trophy featured on the Antiques Roadshow - was used for every final from 1911 until 1991 when it was decided it was too fragile to continue being used.

It was succeeded by an exact replica but this was only used for two decades before also being retired because of wear and tear. In 2014 another version was made by the company Thomas Lyte, the FA's silversmiths and official restorers of silverware to Buckingham Palace.

The trophy went through a lot across eight decades in active use - including joining Chelsea's winning team in the bath after the 1970 final

The cup presented to current holders Arsenal at last year's final is the fifth version

The £1m cup was presented to every winning team from 1911 to 1991, including Derby County, the first post-war winners in 1946

Despite its history, Mr Dickenson claimed the trophy's design suggested it had not been created to be a football trophy, and was more likely designed as a "wine or champagne cooler".

"Now I may be banned from every football ground in the country for saying this, but I suspect that this may have been an off-the-shelf piece, that it may not be specifically made," he said.

"I think that because it has all these grapes and vines on it, it might have been a wine or champagne cooler.

"The hardest thing of all about this is putting a value on it. This is, alongside the Wimbledon trophy, the most famous cup in the country.

"I think, quite comfortably, this has got to be worth well over £1million [$1.4m] - the highest ever value I have given on Antiques Roadshow."

Famous hands to have been on the valuable trophy include those of England legend Bobby Moore, who captained West Ham to FA Cup glory in 1964