Polo photographs: seven original early photographs of polo in Argentina by (Polo) - 1883

Argentina, 1883. Two large photos show mounted groups of players, mallets raised; the third shows an attendant holding the bridle of a pony. Of four smaller photos, one shows a man in gaucho outfit standing with ponies, one shows another man holding a pony, and two show several ponies together, in one case feeding from a hay rack. 1 vols. Three photos approximately 6-1/2 x 9 inches; four approximately 3 x 4 inches. Mounted on two sheets of pasteboard; a few cracks without loss in the lower margin of one large photo, a small chip and diagonal crack at the corner of one small photo, else near fine. In two frames. Two large photos show mounted groups of players, mallets raised; the third shows an attendant holding the bridle of a pony. Of four smaller photos, one shows a man in gaucho outfit standing with ponies, one shows another man holding a pony, and two show several ponies together, in one case feeding from a hay rack. 1 vols. Three photos approximately 6-1/2 x 9 inches; four approximately 3 x 4 inches. Rare Argentine Polo Photographs, Ca. 1883. A very early and possibly unique set of polo photographs, dating from the game's earliest days in Argentina, a country subsequently famous for its superb record in International competitions. Invented in Persia, the game was revived in India in 1863, and was brought to England by British officers in 1869. A number of Englishmen, many of them younger sons of British nobility, emigrated to Argentina in the latter decades of the century, and around 1883 they introduced polo, first played around Buenos Aires, which quickly spread and became a national sport. Some of the faces in the photos offered here have a distinctly English appearance, and it is not too fanciful to assume that these may indeed be some of the founders of the Argentine game. It is also possible that these are the first photographs taken of polo in Argentina.



AN HISTORIC SET OF PHOTOGRAPHS. Dale, Polo at Home and Abroad, p. 182 et seq