[Rarebooks] FS: California Polo & Tour of France, photo album

[Bob Petrilla]

PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OF 234 VERNACULAR IMAGES, FEATURING POLO IN SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA AND A FITZPATRICK FAMILY TOUR OF FRANCE, 1926-1932.

String-tied album, embossed pictorial cover, lacking rear cover, 9" x 12".
Contains images of various sizes (mostly 4.25" x 2.5") mounted to heavy
gray stock, many captioned in ink. The photographer is the wife of Ken
Fitzpatrick, identified only as "self," with children Ted, Muriel and baby
Fiona, Doris, Ian and Skippy, and Jackie (young girl).
Very Good condition, save the missing rear board.

Some of the photos are laid in, including one of “our house in Shanghai”
and one of Ken Fitzpatrick, “one of the [Riviera Polo] Club’s circuit title
team.”  The first part of the album contains candid photographs of family
members (along with a friend or two) posed in England, Germany and France
(plus one in South Africa). Images on the final pages were mostly taken in
Pittsburgh, Washington, DC, and in and around Los Angeles. The family had
extended stays at Bournemouth and Osborne Grange in the U.K. They started
“touring France” in 1926, viewing the World War I battlefields, Cannes,
Avignon, La Rochelle, and Ambois.  There is a candid shot of “Marechal
Foch” in 1927 at Le Cateau, wearing his uniform and being photographed
outdoors along with several of his staff. [Marshal Frederic Foch, one of
the main negotiators of the WWI armistice, died in 1929.] Another
photograph shows the “opening of the Arden Factory at Neuilly, Christmas
1927”, and depicts merrymakers formally dressed and wearing paper hats,
seated at a long table. In Germany in 1929, family members are shown “on
the Wannsee”, near the Linderhof palace, “outside Baden Baden”, etc. A
section of the album, labeled “England 1927-30,” shows various family
members at home, at the beach, with pets, etc. There are also a “Chicago,
USA” picture of girls on a farm labeled 1930, and a Berlin Zoo photo of
“Doris and self” from 1931, as well as several photos taken in Pittsburgh
and Washington, DC, the same year. ~~ Perhaps of greatest interest is the
final section of the album, which contains photographs taken in Los Angeles
in 1932. There are 12 shots directly relating to polo, most taken at the
Riviera Club and showing a man and a woman separately posing with various
named polo ponies (including “Meadowlark”, aka “Little Fellow”, Skylark,
and Buck); and in two photos, Ken is shown in game uniform with mallet,
along with Skylark, on whom he’s mounted in one photo). Another photo shows
the sign for Will Rogers [Polo] Field, announcing a match on May 28th.
[Located in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles, the Will Rogers
Polo Field was built in 1926 as Will's personal field. During the 1930s,
Los Angeles could boast of having over two dozen such fields, while players
included Walt Disney, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and David Niven. The Will
Rogers Field is the only one surviving today. The Riviera Club of these
images is now the location of Paul Revere High School.] Other family
photographs in the album include Ken and wife at home with child and dog,
Susan, on Ogden Drive (in Hollywood).   $300.00

Postpaid in US.  Usual trade terms.



    *  R & A  Petrilla*



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