19th Century Tennis Player 2

by Maj Seda

Title

19th Century Tennis Player 2

Artist

Maj Seda

Medium

Photograph - Photograph - Mixed Media

Description

Louis Labbe
The eccentric

One of the game's great eccentric, Labbe was described in 1835 as wearing a red handkerchief tied around his protuberant belly and another round his head. He went into tennis history when he played Royal Tennis Court member Ball-Hughes in Paris using a boot-jack (for removing boots) instead of a racquet, and won! Always up for a wager, he once played a match with a man riding on his back, and another with a donkey fastened to him. He won both matches!

The first tennis court at Hampton Court was built for Cardinal Wolsey, between 1526 and 1529.

As a young man, Henry VIII was a keen and talented tennis player, who spent hours on court. His second wife Anne Boleyn was gambling on a game of tennis when she was arrested to be taken to the Tower of London. She even complained that she couldn't collect her winnings!

One of the first English guides to tennis in 1553 claimed that this game has been created for a good purpose, namely, to keep our bodies healthy, to make our young men stronger and more robust, chasing idleness, virtue's mortal enemy, far from them and thus making them of a stranger and more excellent nature.

Uploaded

October 8th, 2013

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