Sporting Sybaritism

“I never saw a girl with such beauty, such magnificent intelligence, such goodness and charm,” said the French novelist Marcel Proust about Gladys Deacon. Born in Paris in 1881 to wealthy American parents, she was at the tender age of 11 when her father, Edward Deacon, shot and killed Frenchman M. Emile Abeille in the Hotel Splendid in Cannes – a crime fuelled by jealousy, as the deceased was, not unexpectedly, found crouching behind an armchair in the bedroom of his wife Florence.

In early 1883, Florence’s father, Charles H. Baldwin, having already served with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Civil War, was promoted to Rear Admiral and assumed command of the European Squadron. That year Florence turned 20, and her alluring natural dark blonde hair, along with her undeniably beguiling facial features, captured the attention of high society in Newport, Paris and Rome, where a lover had rented the grand Renaissance Palazzo Farnese in the nearby town of Caprarola. Already married, at the age of 16, and mother to the aforementioned Gladys, among her closest friends was Bernard Berenson, the preeminent connoisseur of Renaissance art, and great-uncle to the inimitably attractive and aesthetic sisters Marisa and Berry. It was at his epochal Renaissance-style Villa Titti, which he bequeathed to Harvard University upon his death, that Gladys would later develop a fondness for Berenson, so much so that she once told him, ‘You are not a person to me. You are a burst of soul and spirit.’ 

Coincidentally, Florence made a significant return to the Palazzo Farnese in 1914. In March of that year the five-time Italian prime minister Giovanni Giolitti resigned. The more conservative Antonio Salandra formed a new government, but in June widespread rioting, known as “Red Week”, engulfed Italy; two months later, World War One broke out, marking an unparalleled global intervention. At this time a small troupe of American expats moved to Caprarola, with the Villa Farnese acting as their refuge – from the loggia with the Hercules fountain it granted enchanting views extending over the Lazio countryside to Rome. At this majestic Palazzo, Florence, Mme Baldwin coordinated her fellow eccentric expats to contribute to the war effort by preparing packages for soldiers.

To return to fin-de-siècle Paris in 1890, the start of a decade that epitomised the Belle Époque fanfare, we uncover two of Proust’s chosen literary salons, hosted by the ethereal artists Madeleine Lemaire and Leontine Lippmann; it was here that experimental indulgence was experienced by people from all walks of life – a blend of avant-garde ideas that inspired Proust to write the seven volumes of À la Recherche du Temps Perdu – In Search of Lost Time. Considered a modernist tour de force of recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood in late 19th-century and early 20th-century high-society France, the epic novel is an immersive journey that explores societal love, wrapped up in this dazzling Parisian tapestry of mould-breaking artistic imagination. It was at Mme Lemaire’s salon on the Rue de Monceau that searing natural beauty, emanated through her art and dress, kindled a mise en scène that would feature the ultimate dandy in Robert de Montesquiou, who not only unsurprisingly inspired Baron de Charles in Proust’s masterpiece but was also painted by Boldini, a friend of Proust, in 1897.

In 2022, the Musée Carnavalet hosted Marcel Proust: Un Roman Parisien (A Parisian Novel) to mark the centenary of his death. And simultaneously, at the Petit Palais on Avenue Winston-Churchill, the first retrospective of Giavanni Boldini, Pleasures and Days, was a captivating and enriching exposition of Paris’s nonpareil of glamour, opulence, artistry, richness and love. He painted nobles, heiresses and the beau monde of art with a punctilious, obsessive devotion to dress, the latter akin to the filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. But Boldini had the peerless privilege of effortlessly manipulating brushstrokes on the bold-faced names who were outfitted in couture ensembles designed by the likes of Charles Worth, Jeanne Paquin, Paul Poiret and Jacques Doucet, the latter of whose most original designs were for illustrious actresses of the time, including Sarah Bernhardt – a multidisciplinary artist whose swashbuckling figure, hair and seductively meandering dress are marvellously illustrated in Boldini’s portrait of 1904.

Winston Churchill mounted at a polo match in Madrid, Spain in 1914. (Photo courtesy of PA Images via Alamy)

The 1900 Summer Olympics were widely termed the Games of the II Olympiad, or Paris 1900, and were the second modern incarnation of the games after the Paris-born Baron Pierre de Coubertin masterminded the first four years earlier in Athens. It was, however, the first year that polo was contested at the games. When Baron de Coubertin orchestrated this inclusion in the modern Olympics, his actions would have introduced a new and, some could say, refreshing standard of virtuoso behaviour in the sport.

Fifty or so years earlier, Francois Blanc, “The Magician of Monte Carlo”, would directly, and indirectly, curate and be responsible for an increasing trajectory of illicit happenings in the world of horse polo. Born in 1806 in Courthézon, Provence, François married Maria Charlotte Blanc née Hensel, a German socialite. She was instrumental in her entrepreneurial husband taking advantage of a meeting with Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, to pioneer in 1843 a single 0-style roulette wheel, which would rival the casinos in Paris. It so happened that Charles III, Prince of Monaco, had recently legalised gambling in the Principality – thus Blanc was an obvious recruit to manage the new casino, a position that he accepted in 1863, but only with the persuasion of Princess Caroline. In 1876, Blanc and Maria’s first daughter, Louise, married Prince Constantine Radziwill, as a result of which she inherited the Radziwill family’s palatial ancestral Château d’Ermenonville. And their daughter, Marie Lise, married into France’s ancient House of La Rochefoucauld, when she wedded Armand Francoise Jules Marie of La Rochefoucauld, 5^th Duke of Doudeauville, of whom much more later…

A decade earlier, the media magnate, and owner of the New York Herald, James Gordon Bennett Sr, turned over control of the newspaper to his 26 year old son James Gordon Bennett Jr. Born in New York in 1841, Bennett Jr grew up surrounded by immense wealth and opulence. However, as the heir to a widely circulated newspaper, his mind was influenced during his adolescence, despite not living in an igloo, in a fashion that a nomad would be, because of his totally unique existence as a youthful pariah, scion of a then unprecedented news empire. As a whipper-snapper at Prep School, it was often in the moment of hurling a school book to a friend, or nowhere, usually incited by frustration, that a strict schoolmistress would widen her eyes and, in a fading voice, exclaim “Gordon Bennett”. This phrase would come to stick with impolite or unruly pupils – we even use it ourselves – but most would never know the origin of this idiomatic expression.

Bennett Jr, unsurprisingly, perceived life in a way that exceeded his age, whether it was a gift or not. It often led to outrageous behaviour, as he constantly sought thrilling experiences that only a minority of people his age could enjoy. At 16 his father gave him a 70-foot yacht, which would transform him into an avid yachtsman; this passion ultimately led to him becoming the youngest ever commodore of the New York Yacht Club, but it also tempered his eccentricities. According to his detractors, he would stand on the deck drinking booze while his crew did all the work. Notably, he was also a keen horseman, and we will later delve further into his significant influence in this sphere. Among his peccadillos was his inordinate obsession with owls and Pekingese dogs. Apparently, he counted on his dogs to vet job applicants – if they liked a candidate, he would secure the job. One enterprising candidate hid veal in his clothes to win a spot on the newspaper!

Uncannily, while still in his 20s Bennett Jr was acquainted with Leonard Jerome, who earned the title of “King of Wall Street” after making and losing fortunes in the market. Born in Pompey in Onondaga County, New York, in 1817, Jerome was one of nine sons and one daughter – and it was his sister who once described him as having “much sense of honour and hardly any sense of sin.” He was rumoured, falsely, to be the father of American opera singer Minnie Hauk; coincidentally, the horse of the same name won this year’s Epsom Oaks. In 1849, he married Clarissa Hall, the daughter of the eminent lawyer Amos Hall. And his second daughter, Jeanette, was one of the first so-called ‘buccaneers’ to cross the ocean to Europe, many of whom, including Consuelo Vanderbilt, who became the first wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough, and Gladys, his tragic second wife, were painted by Boldini. Jeanette also married into the Marlborough family through Lord Randolph Churchill, and one of their descendants is regarded as Britain’s greatest statesman, Sir Winston Churchill.

Jerome was reshaping the landscape of New York in nearly every facet of life. In 1859 the British-born architect Thomas R. Jackson was commissioned by Jerome to design the largest and most opulent residence in the city – a tall order if there ever was one. The Paris Exposition had opened seven years earlier, sparking a craze for the Second Empire style of architecture. And so it took seven years to finish the most cutting-edge mansion in the States of its time and, situated at the intersection of 26th Street and Madison Avenue, the Jerome mansion was a spellbinding, unarmed and flamboyant invasion of New York. Aside from being tremendously affiliated with the media, Bennett Jr shared with Jerome their staunch yachtsman and equine hobbies and, when R. Jackson presented the stables, separated from the house by a small lot, they were parallel in design, including the stained glass windows – a ritzy city stud for Jerome’s thoroughbreds.

One of Jerome’s contemporaries described him thus: “He dazzled New York society with the glitter and novelty of his carriages and the costliness of his blooded horses”. At the time of this description, August Belmont Sr, despite being Rothschild & Co’s agent in New York among a host of other important top-level positions in business and culture, was also serving as the president of the National Jockey Club. In 1866 these two wealthy and fiendish gentlemen of thoroughbreds collided to co-found Jerome Park Racetrack in the northwest part of Fordham, Westchester County (now in the Bronx), New York. Known as the “Daddy of Horse Racing in the United States”, Jerome Park stretched across 230 acres, and was the first racetrack in America. Co-masterminded by Bennet Jr and William Knapp Thorn, the grandson of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Westchester Polo Club was also established there in 1876.

Knapp Thorn was a bona fide horseman and revered principally on the polo ground, where he participated in the 1886 International Polo Cup with teammates Foxhall Parker Keene and Thomas Hitchcock Sr, the latter the first 10-goaler in polo history. Like many American trailblazing entrepreneurs and architects of the Gilded Age, after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Knapp Thorn and his family travelled on a luxury ocean liner to Paris, where Promethean artists collided with the new beau and archetypal bold-faced Belle Époque influxes, making the city a place to be and be seen. In 1887, Bennett Jr founded a European edition of his New Yok title, named the Paris Herald – an apt binary name given its purpose of targeting the Americans drawn to this vibrant milieu.

Today Pau, a city in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the southwest of France, is accessible by a train that takes over 4 hours from Paris, but it took much, much longer by carriage in 1880. The city is known for its heritage as the birthplace of royalty and is home to the Pau Golf Club, established in 1856 and recognised as the oldest golf club in Continental Europe. And it was on the Billère Plain, adjacent to the golf course, that Bennett Jr and Knapp Thorn introduced polo to France. The latter, perhaps befittingly as a world-renowned star of polo, died at his home in Pau – a polo-connected death that would be the first in a depressingly long history of individuals passing away while engaged in their beloved pastime.

The upper echelons of society in France were drawn to the nascent polo fever in Pau, in spite of its distance from the capital, and it was only a matter of time before it reached Paris. Sosthène de la Rochefoucauld was a former French ambassador in London – a French aristocrat who naturally bestowed impeccable connections in society and global affairs. It was his son, the aforementioned Armand François Jules Marie de La Rochefoucauld, 5th Duke of Doudeauville, who, together with the Duke of Estrees, brought the sport to the city, founding the Polo de Paris in 1891. It was situated in Bagatelle’s historic park, which, then separate from the Bois de Boulogne, was owned by the City of Paris and used by French officers to train for equestrian events. It was in part thanks to Viscount de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville and his connections that they were able to hire the land and it was built, inspired by the polo field at Palermo in the centre of Buenos Aires. It was therefore no surprise that the Viscount became the first president of the club. And it is also unsurprising that Bennett Jr was instrumental in the inauguration of polo in Paris.

But back to Viscount de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville; he was part of the Bagatelle Polo Club de Paris team, which won the bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics. Walter Adolph McCreery, born in Zurich in 1871, competed for the American team that year. We know that much later, in his heyday, Alexander Kraft himself played polo at an advanced level, striking the ball with a long mallet to pass through the goalposts in Zurich. He is pictured above wearing his trademark white trousers and navy short-sleeved polo shirt; these are early iterations of the AK MC soft cotton Riviera trouser and handcrafted superfine cotton short-sleeved polo shirt. It’s casually stylish yet undeniably comfortable apparel to wear for polo, as he does when mounted before a match in Zurich.

Alexander Kraft playing polo in Zurich, 2000.

As mentioned earlier, the introduction of polo in the Olympics did impart to the sport a more straight-laced image, but beyond the saddle, even with Olympic competitors, it thrived on indiscretions. Caresse Crosby, the free-spirited literary godmother of the Lost Generation, invented the modern brassiere, which received a patent in its category. We must acknowledge its contribution to pioneering design methods and nuances that soften the rigid and stiff details of garments; one notable designer in contemporary sartorial menswear who exemplifies this is Alexander Kraft. However, if you are going to choose one of a host of hedonistic tales that Crosby left behind, it is that Viscount de la Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville, who became the longest-serving president of the French Jockey Club from 1919 to 1962, was one of her many distinguished lovers.

The names associated with the House of La Rochefoucauld, Marcel Proust, Radziwill and Blanc, all intersect again, with polo style being the primary focus of this connection. Born in Saint-Cloud in 1880, Prince Leon Radziwill was the son of Prince Constantine Radziwill and Louise Blanc. He was a cousin of Prince Michel Radziwill, who married Maria de Benardaky in St Petersburg; she had a childhood love for Proust. Therefore, it is not surprising that the dashing Prince Leon became integral to Proust’s circle of friends and was one of his models for In Search of Lost Time. During this time, he had affection only for his sister Lise, who, as the tale comes full circle, eventually married Armand François Jules Marie de La Rochefoucauld, the 5th Duke of Doudeauville, a pioneer in French horse polo. And so it is no surprise that Prince Leon was often pictured at the Polo of Bagatelle, wearing immaculate 1920s horse polo attire. However, in sync with the mysterious aura that seems to follow the sport, he died in Monte Carlo in 1927.

Sir Winston Churchill, Jerome’s descendant, stated “A polo handicap is a passport to the world”. He joined the 4th Hussars in Aldershot in 1895, but two years earlier, while at the Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, the young Winston sent a letter to his father seeking permission to ride and, during six months of enjoyment back home in London, he played at the now-defunct but utterly sophisticated Ranelagh Club. It didn’t take long for him to realise the opportunities polo would bring, as he was soon posted to Bombay with the 4th Hussars, a regiment that so highly valued the sport that they purchased a complete polo stud of twenty-five horses from Poona, now Pune, where the best ponies were bred.

In the sphere of sartorial menswear, the inconclusive origins of certain styles are in part inauthentic, but the mystery itself arouses thrilling intrigue. For example, in 1897, as an aspiring correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph, Winston spent his days during the North West Frontier campaign with the 11 Bengal Lancers, and while his dispatches shed light on the origins of the Bengal stripe, they remain inconclusive. History also continues to obscure the origins of the game of polo. It is thought that the earliest written mention of the game is in the 7th century, but we learn from documents that it arrived in India from Persia with the Mughal conquerors in the 13th century, and became quite fashionable at the court of the emperors. However, it is as early as the 15th century BC (3,500 years ago!) that there are the earliest records of the Imphal Polo Ground in Manipur.

In the mid-nineteenth century, many Manipuris settled on the border of Cacher, where Lieutenant Joseph Ford Sherer witnessed local people playing polo with seven players mounted on little 12-hand ponies, aiming to hit a wooden ball past the back lines of a rectangular field. Sherer, ‘The Father of English Polo’, observed and studied the polo apparel, with players barefoot, wearing turbans secured by a strap, dhotis (a long cotton loincloth), leg guards and collared sleeveless shirts. The British military officers took the shirts back to Britain, where the collars were first added to polo shirts.

In the realm of portraiture, it’s difficult to surpass the beauty of Boldini’s subjects. However, if you’re thinking of an enthroned tailoring house to compare with it, it would be Henry Pool & Co. Unsurprisingly, their ledgers tell a story of the most stylish polo players of all time. King Alfonso XIII of Spain would be entertained by Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, at his ancestral country estate, Eaton Hall, in Cheshire to play polo, and to enhance such glamour, Coco Chanel was a known lover of the Duke. Born in Simla, the 8th Duke of Marlborough, husband of Gladys. And then there is Maharani Gayatri Devi, picked by Cecil Beaton as one of the top ten most beautiful people in the world.  

Mrs Jaqueline Kennedy (right), herself a keen horsewoman feeding a pony during a break in watching a polo game with Maharani Gayatri Devi of Jaipur in 1962. (Photo courtesy of Smith Archive via Alamy)

She was a high-class player in her own right, but it was her nine-goal handicap husband, H.H. Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II of Jaipur who really excelled, often showing his unmatched prowess on the polo field at the UK’s fabled grounds such as Roehampton, Ranelagh and the Hurlingham Polo Club. Sadly he was another in the annals of polo fatalities, like his noble countryman, Colonel H. Herman Harjes, President of Morgan, Harjes & Co. Bank in Paris, who succumbed on the polo ground at Deauville while playing with Lord Mountbatten – himself a polo luminary.  The Maharaja’s fatal fall came while playing polo in Cirencester – a town where I incidentally spent three years. Prince Shivraj Singh of Jodhpur, the face of modern Indian polo, would have a near-fatal fall during the Birla Cup at the Rambaugh Ground in 2005, remaining in a coma for two months. Thankfully he survived.

As a renowned collector of watches, Mr Kraft owns, among others, a rather historic gold Cartier. He inspected the watch at auction and was intrigued by the probable royal provenance indicated by the crown engraved on the back. He appreciates pocket watches both from a historical point of view and because his desire of wearing three-piece suits enables him to carry them as intended – on a gold chain in a waistcoat pocket. Kraft has personalised the watch with a fob made from a Guards Cap badge in recognition of his 25-year membership in the Guards Polo Club. On the subject of the Guards Polo Club, Prince Philip, consort of HM Queen Elizabeth II, was the president of the club from its formation in 1955 until his death in April 2021.

Clearly a zealous, passionate and more than useful player, the Argentine Polo Association put him on a team with three rising young local stars, including the Heguy brothers, Horacio and Alberto Pedro. Amusingly, there was a well-founded story that the Prince once expressed a willingness to trade the Falkland Islands to Argentina for two outstanding players – it should be noted that this occurred long before (Her Majesty’s Government deemed the South Atlantic islands significant enough to dispatch the Royal Navy to reclaim them from the invading armed forces in 1983. There was a tournament in 1966 at the Hurlingham Club in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, and the rumour was that the British Polo Association had excluded the Prince. In fact, he played in the Hurlingham Open in Argentina that year, where he reached the finals. 

It is a timely moment to mention that, starting on November 2, Alexander Kraft Monte Carlo will have a shop at the bona fide Italian shoemaker Stefano Bemer’s store on Park Avenue in New York. Alexander Kraft received his second law degree in America, where he would conclude his studies by passing the New York bar exam. Mr Kraft expanded his business ventures in New York, and he often flew to Buenos Aires on Thursday nights to compete in polo matches. He would always take his Rolex GMT-Master watch, the gift from his parents as a graduation present, on his frequent travels; he took it on one such trip, a visit during which it was stolen at knifepoint in Buenos Aires, “the polo capital of the world”, a captivating arena for the history of polo that has transcended into some of the most incredible stories.

Established in 1893, the Argentina Open Polo Championship is the world’s oldest and most prestigious tournament and is at the apex of the “Triple Crown”, which also features the Hurlingham Polo Open, the Tortugas Polo Open and the venerated Palermo Polo Open. The Summer Olympics returned to Paris in 1924, and it was a team consisting of Arthur Kenny, Juan Nelson, Enrique Padilla and Juan Miles that won the polo gold medal for Argentina. In 1932, the Meadow Brook team was formed, consisting of Mike Phipps, Billy Post, Elmer Boesek Jr and, last but not least, Winston Frederick Churchill Guest, the latter being the son of the refined polymath Frederick E. Guest and also the husband of the undeniably beautiful C.Z. Guest, who was spared, it is thought in part because of her beauty, in La Cote Basque, 1965, the infamous betrayal in which Truman Capote aired his beloved swans’ murky stories. However, to conclude with a reference to the ultimate polo playing legendary leader, he was also the first cousin to Sir Winston Churchill.