Recalling the days when the old Crystal Palace hosted Man City in FA Cup action

The Crystal Palace provides the impressive backdrop for match action between two clubs whose fortunes have since diverged. 

HERE'S hoping that an important painting featuring football action at the ground of the old Crystal Palace exhibition centre does not leave the country.

There is likely to be interest from overseas, possibly including Abu Dhabi, as well as at home when a vibrant study of a 1926 FA Cup match involving Manchester City comes up for grabs tomorrow  Wednesday December 13.

According to auction house Bonhams, bidding could reach as much as £150,000, maybe more, before the hammer falls.  

The  match was played on January 9, 1926, 10 years before the magnificent Crystal Palace building was destroyed by a mystery fire.

City's opponents for the Third Round that day were not today's Crystal Palace, who were by now playing at Selhurst Park, but an amateur side, Corinthians who held on for a 3-3 draw, only to lose 4-0 in the replay  in Manchester.

City went on to reach the final that year, on their way defeating Crystal Palace by a bizarre 11-4 scoreline.

But they fell short at Wembley, losing 1-0 to Bolton Wanderers.

What of Palace in the same competition that year? Before losing to City, they had between Northampton Town (after a replay) and Chelsea.

The artist of the painting above is Charles Cundall (1890-1971) who came from Manchester where he studied at the College of Art, and it is possible that he was commissioned by City. 

But that seems unlikely given that his focus is not so much on the match action but on the activity among the fans, some perched on branches of trees.

Some of his most notable later works featured World War 2 incidents such as the withdrawal of British troops from Dunkirk.

The best-known painter of football scenes was another Manchester artist, L.S. Lowry, whose 1949 work, The Football Match, sold at Christies for £5.6-million in January 2013.

What of Corinthians? In 1939, just before the outbreak or the war, they merged with another amateur club, to become Corinthian-Casuals. 

Their all-white strip is said to have been the inspiration for the similar strip worn by Spanish giants Real Madrid.