Pelote Basque à main nue

Created circa 1950 by Leocadio Muro Urriza, this original French sporting poster announces the Côte d’Argent Excellence Championship final in bare-hand Basque pelota. The match was held on Sunday, January 20, at the Trinquet Moderne, located at 363 Rue Georges-Bonnac in Bordeaux.

The upper section presents a monumental figure dressed in traditional Basque costume, wearing white garments decorated with red and green details and a characteristic red beret. He holds a ribboned staff across his shoulder, while brightly coloured streamers create movement against the deep blue background. Below, a stylised Basque village, church and arched bridge evoke the cultural landscape from which the sport originated.

A specially lettered programme occupies the lower section of the poster. It identifies the participating clubs—the A.A.S. Basco-Béarnaise of Paris and the Électricité Club Bordeaux—alongside the names and achievements of the competing players. The informal hand-painted typography gives the surviving poster the individual character of a local sporting announcement.

Bare-hand pelota is one of the oldest and most demanding forms of Basque pelota. Played without a racket, pala or chistera, it requires competitors to strike the ball directly with a protected hand. The championship advertised here demonstrates how the sport’s traditions extended beyond the Basque Country into Bordeaux and the wider Côte d’Argent region.

Leocadio Muro Urriza (1897–1987) was a Spanish painter, illustrator, decorator and poster designer born in Pamplona. Trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Pamplona and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, he became particularly known for compositions celebrating the festivals, costumes and traditions of Navarre and the Basque Country. With its unusual combination of decorative regional imagery and specific match details, this original poster is particularly appealing to collectors of Basque culture, vintage sporting graphics and French regional history.

Original poster

Sport - Basque Country - Tourism

Côte d'Argent - Final of the Excellence Championship - at the Trinquet de Bordeaux

Good condition, restorations, traces of folds