Rare 1930 World Cup Poster

The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship award for men’s national association football teams. The tournament was held in Uruguay from 13th to 30th July, 1930.

Dimensions: 52 x 28 cm

This monochrome poster reads in Spanish: ‘Soccer World Championship / Montevideo, Uruguay / 15 July – 15 August’. The poster also carries the original blue stamp of the Comite Ejecutivo, marked 1930.The poster created in Art Deco style, depicts in its upper half a stylised figure of a faceless goalkeeper lurching upwards in a valiant attempt to stop a ball aimed at the top right-hand corner of the goal posts from entering the goal area, with the position of the ball shown by placing the crossbar and the right-hand goal post at the back of it in an angular fashion. The lower half contains writing in a heavily stylized font: ‘1er Campeonato Mundial de Futbol’ in black, and ‘Uruguay 1930 Montevideo 15 Julio Augusto 15’. The I is shown enlarged and prominent to emphasise the historical fact that it is the First World Football Championship. The vivid imagery enshrined in this most iconic of sports posters strikingly reflects the creative imagination and the consummate skills of a graphic artist at the height of his career. This iconic and historic poster has come to be known as the ‘Laborde Affiche’. The posters were published by Olivera y Fernandez of Reconquista 624, Montevideo.

General Comment

Very few of the colour posters are known to have survived, especially as the print run was small. A colour poster in good condition, without losses, tears, nicks or creases or discolourations if it ever appeared in today’s retail market (2019) could fetch a price as high as £50,000. A lot more of the monochrome version were printed for general publicity and advertising purposes and to be distributed to football fans, local and foreign, but mostly from neighbouring Latin American countries. However, only a very few are thought to be in existence today in a good collectible condition, without blemishes like losses, tears or disfiguring and/or deeply marked creases or heavy age-toning as the one we are offering for sale. The one on offer is from a stock purchased from a descendant of the original publisher of the poster, who had looked after his inheritance with the tender loving care that befitted his emotional attachment to it. (Before he agreed to sell his cherished family heirloom, he made extensive enquiries into the credentials of the prospective purchaser. The poster shows that paper, colour and print technologies were still in their early stages of development in 1930 and vastly different from those of the present day. However, for a dedicated and informed collector of sports memorabilia they add special dimensions of interest.

This now very rare almost 93 year-old poster is in good condition for its age and will command a very high price in 2030, the centenary year of the FIFA World Cup when it will have achieved the exalted status of an antiquarian poster.

Background Information

The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship award for men’s national association football teams. The tournament was held in Uruguay from 13th to 30th July, 1930. FIFA, football’s international body governing, selected Uruguay as the host nation, acknowledging the twin-facts that in 1930 the country would be celebrating the centenary of its first constitution, and the Uruguay national football team had successfully retained their football title at the 1928 Olympic Games. All the matches were played in the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo, the majority at the Estadio Centenario, which was specially built for the tournament. Thirteen teams (seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America) entered the tournament. Only a few Europeans teams chose to take participate beca

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