THE EVERTON COLLECTION CHARITABLE TRUST
THE EVERTON COLLECTION CHARITABLE TRUST |
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bluekipper.com salute David France for being such a generous Evertonian. The collection will be bought for just £800,000. A figure he could have doubled if he had sold all the items separately to private collectors. Everton have donated £250,000, Lord Granchester has donated £100,000, plus other individuals and companies have donated money towards the target. Now we the fans need to donate a few quid. We can do this by: *
Donate at the
Everton Collection website
Blue Kipper Get A Private Showing Of The Collection Keith Wyness says: “The major point to get across is that if the fans contribute to the appeal they will actually own the collection themselves. That will be there for generations to come. We always chant ‘If you know your history’ but now is a chance to make that a reality with the charitable trust. The money is not going to the club and the club will not own the collection, it will be owned by the fans and that is so important. It will be a proud boast for Everton to say we have a more substantial collection of our heritage than any other club in the world. That is how you generate more fans for the future and how you educate the youth about the great traditions of this club.The club has always been very proud of its history and now we really will have something to boast about.We have done everything possible to make sure this collection will be as accessible as it can be for the supporters. That is why we are talking with the National Museum of Liverpool and the Records Office of Liverpool to make sure everything is totally accessible, particularly for schools for education and for fans in general who want to learn about the history of Everton. We want it to belong to the fans and we want them to utilise it.” THE EVERTON COLLECTION CHARITABLE TRUST – LAUNCH SUMMARY * The Everton Collection is a unique collection of artefacts, letters, medals and other ephemera surrounding the history of Everton Football Club which has been amassed by David France. * Christie’s say it is the most comprehensive collection of football memorabilia relating to one club in the world. It is valued at £1.2 million. * The Everton Collection Charitable Trust has been established by Evertonians to secure the Collection for future generations and educate them on the history of football on Merseyside. * An appeal has today been launched by the Trust to raise an agreed £800,000 to purchase the Collection for Evertonians, football fans and the people of Merseyside. * The Trustees are in discussion with both the Liverpool Record Office and National Museums Liverpool with a view to storage, maintenance and display of the Collection. It is the Trustees intention that the Collection will be available for both research and more general public exhibitions and display. THE DAVID FRANCE COLLECTION HOLDS THE KEY TO THE EVERTON TOWER OF GLORY AND STRENGTH For over 25 years, Dr David France has been assembling what has been quoted as the most comprehensive collection of football memorabilia in the world. A Collection of artefacts, letters and other ephemera, the David France Collection is a timeline of Everton history stemming from the very roots of the Club’s existence to the present day. Containing items which crystallised and created a nation of blue-blooded Evertonians, the Collection traces the Club’s heritage back to 1878 when Everton’s time first began. Further to this, the Collection is also of the utmost historical importance in illustrating and chronicling the formation of the oldest League system in the world. Featuring some of football’s rarest artefacts, of the 10,000 collated items, many pre-date the formative years of the Football League. Boasting an anthology of programmes dating back to 1886, the Collection contains 6,065 programmes covering the Club’s participation in league, cup competitions, friendly games and reserve team fixtures between 1886 – 2001. The programmes provided the starting block for David France’s Collection when he first started assembling programmes as a young boy in 1953. Added to his first programme are now all the home and most of the away programmes for every game in which Dixie Dean played for Everton, along with 30 home issues and one away edition from the pre-League era and many more since. Added to the programmes, season tickets, ticket stubs, medals, photographs, contracts, cash books, handbooks, financial statements and other ephemera, every item amassed in the collection assists in mapping out the Club’s distinguished past and its unparalleled heritage. Other items include cigarette cards, postcards and international caps from the turn of the century. Each piece of memorabilia is unique and special in its own right. Some pieces date back to the pioneering days at Stanley Park, Priory Road and Anfield with the Everton Ledgers shedding much light and insight into the Club’s history from 1886 through to 1964, including diverse issues such as the choice of colours, selection of team line-ups and the acrimonious split which resulted in the formation of Liverpool Football Club. With this in mind, the Collection not only documents the history and pedigree of Everton Football Club, but also the history of football in the city of Liverpool, Merseyside, and the world. Its contents provide an ideal tool to educate people in the history of the beautiful game and life in Liverpool itself, however it is also a box of memories opening a wealth of opportunity to look back and reminisce about the past and the glory of Everton Football Club. THE ACQUISITION David France now plans to sell his precious collection, with an intention for it to return home to the people of Merseyside, so that it can be enjoyed by Evertonians and football enthusiasts alike. The Collection has been valued at £1.2 million, but would fetch considerably more if broken up and sold as individual items. However, as a loyal Evertonian David is passionate that it should remain in its entirety and has offered it to Evertonians for £800,000. In order to acquire this outstanding Collection, a Charitable Trust has been established to bring it home to the “People’s Club”, preserving its integrity and historical significance. Established by Trustees, Lord Grantchester, grandson of former Everton Chairman Sir John Moores; Keith Wyness, Chief Executive of Everton FC and another True Blue Evertonian, Tony Tighe. The Everton Collection Charitable Trust aims to secure the Collection for future generations, maintaining and preserving each item to ensure the legacy of Everton and the history of football on Merseyside and the world, lives on. The Trust is launching an appeal to generate the funds required to acquire the Collection, including several fundraising initiatives that will be run over the summer and the start of the 2005/2006 Football Season. The Club itself has donated £250,000 to the Trust and a further £100,000 has been donated by Lord Grantchester, who first brokered the deal with David France, so it is almost half way toward reaching its target. Lord Grantchester commented: “This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to secure a unique and fundamental collection of memorabilia, which will educate and preserve the history of Everton so that it is accessible for generations to come. If we are successful in our appeal the Everton Collection will be owned by the Charitable Trust for the benefit of Evertonians, the community and the people who contribute to this worthwhile charity.” TO
DONATE TO THE EVERTON COLLECTION APPEAL CALL THE FUTURE HOME AND DISPLAY It
is intended that The Everton Collection will be housed in the Liverpool
Record Office where it will be available for public research and that
working in partnership with the Record Office, National Museums Liverpool
will regularly select items from the Collection to feature in their
rolling programme of exhibitions and displays. By the terms of this special partnership The Everton Collection would be on loan to these major public institutions in order to unlock additional resources and to ensure greater public access to the Collection. Lord Grantchester, Trustee of the Everton Collection Charitable Trust comments; “Our partnership with the Liverpool Record Office and National Museums Liverpool is the perfect solution to our desire to preserve the Collection and allow Evertonians, football fans and the people of Merseyside and beyond to be educated on Everton FC’s history and relevance to the community over the last 127 years”. Councillor Warren Bradley, executive member for leisure, said: “The Liverpool Record Office is delighted to be working with the Trust on this project to secure the collection for future generations.” THE EVERTON COLLECTION - MERIT APPRAISAL It is widely recognised that this Collection is of paramount importance and the following details the appraisal received from a variety of influential sources; Christie’s the leading auction house in sport memorabilia said; “The Collection, without doubt, is the finest and most comprehensive collection of its type relating to a single club in private hands. Indeed, the only comparable collection of Ledgers and Minute Books is the one relating to the Scottish Football Association/Queen’s Park FC which is now in the Scottish Football Museum at Hampden Park, Glasgow. Christie’s honestly believes the Collection is not only of local importance to Evertonians and Merseyside people in general, but also of National importance and is of Museum quality.” Dr David Fleming OBE, Director of National Museums Liverpool said; “The Collection represents an important area of the social history of Merseyside.” Janet Dugdale, Keeper of Urban History of National Museums Liverpool said; “The Collection is of national, regional and local importance. It also has some international relevance. The Collection enables those who have access to it to learn about the development of football from the end of the 19th Century, and in particular the start of the League in 1888 to the present day. It has strong connections to the social and community life of the city of Liverpool – not only in terms of the football history content but the social fabric of the city as represented in the advertisements contained in the programmes dating back to 1888 and the creation of Goodison Park. The Ledgers, contracts, various letters enable further study into the running of a business from inception in the late 19th Century until the 1960s. “The story of football is the story of Liverpool. Within Liverpool and within the wider region, especially Merseyside, football is intrinsically linked with the identity of the city. There is an important sense of belonging felt by football fans who support Everton FC or Liverpool FC. This collection shows how two world class teams began and goes on to complete the Everton story.” DR DAVID FRANCE – HE DOES KNOW OUR HISTORY
David France is the enthusiastic founder of both The Everton Former-Players’ Foundation and Gwladys Street's Hall of Fame. And like most Evertonians, he was born a Blue. Raised in Widnes, his first royal blue experience was listening to the radio for the outcome of the fifth round FA Cup tie against Manchester United. On February 14, 1953, at the exact moment when Dave Hickson scored and cheers resonated through the local community, David’s obsession with the Blues started. Later that evening, a neighbour presented him with the matchday programme which became his most prized possession. Unfortunately when he was stricken with Scarlet Fever soon afterwards. While David was quarantined in an isolation hospital, most items in the France household were taken away to be incinerated, including his one and only Everton programme. After visiting Goodison for the first time on September 4, 1957, he treasured the programme from that fixture against the Busby Babes and stored his fledgling collection in the safest place he could find - an old shoe box. He was allowed to go to games on his own as early as age 11, provided he showed his mother the matchday programme as proof that he had been to Goodison. So like it or not, David had to buy a programme and his collection expanded in direct relation to his passion for Everton. Educated in the United Kingdom, Germany and the USA, Dr France emigrated across the Atlantic in 1977 and, while jetting back to catch as many games as possible, had forgotten about these keepsakes until his mother warned him of her plans to empty her attic of ‘junk‘. Understanding his royal blue devotion, she airmailed the motley shoe box to Texas and the mere sight of its contents kicked off David’s strategic mission to save Everton’s history. And after determining that there were no archives at the club, he embarked on amassing every post-war home programme. That goal achieved, he turned his sights towards every post-war away issue and so on. In going so, David established a network of dealers and enthusiasts to track down all types of post-war and pre-war artefacts and dedicated one evening per month trawling through catalogues and dispatching orders. In no time at all, David had acquired thousands of programmes, medals, caps, season-tickets, photographs, cigarette cards, books, letters, etc. as well as numerous priceless items dating back to the club‘s pioneering days in Stanley Park. As football memorabilia became more popular, David travelled from Texas to auctions across the UK to secure elusive nineteenth century treasures and, as a result, spent no small fortune in accumulating 10,000 different items. Dr France took 25 years to compile what is widely respected as the world’s finest collection of football memorabilia before retiring to the Pacific North West. Befitting a former-oil industry executive and former-management consultant specialising in mergers and acquisitions, it was a disciplined process involving strategic planning and significant patience. And befitting a passionate Evertonian, it was also a genuine labour of love. David France - British by birth, American by choice and Evertonian by pedigree - has travelled over 2 million miles and written a dozen Everton books to answer the Blues’ call for “Do you know your history?” * A massive "Thanks" to David from all the Everton fans, for patiently waiting for the powers that be to sort out the charitable trust. A lesser man would have sold the collection bit by bit and made over double the asking price. But David is part of the Everton extended family and couldn't do that. Call Y'self An Evertonian? You certainly can! Blue Kipper Get A Private Showing Of The Collection What do you think? e-mail info@bluekipper.com |
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