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Foreword by Lord Wodehouse. Illustrated from photographs, including frontispiece and 14 pages of half-tone illustrations taken from a slow-motion film of polo strokes; plus diagrams in text. 9¾x7½, quarter vellum, gilt-ruled and -lettered, morocco lettering-piece, decorated endpapers, top edge gilt. First Edition. No. 9 of 100 copies, signed by the author as "Marco" and signed by Wodehouse.

A remarkable presentation copy, with a warm autograph inscription to General Shang Chen on the front free endpaper: "To General Shang Chen the 'Father of Polo in China' from his fellow player / Louis Mountbatten / In memory of my visit to ChunKing in the 'Marco Polo' October 1943" in green ink. General Shang Chen was one of the most important of the Nationalist Chinese generals of World War II. Mountbatten learned to play polo when he was invited to accompany the royal family on their tour of India in 1921/2. In the 1920's and 30's Mountbatten's popular image was that of a playboy, delighting in fast cars, speedboats, and, above all, polo. However, he was an essentially serious and politically dedicated character. By 1943, Mountbatten had been a very courageous and beloved naval commander in WWII. In August of 1943 he had been promoted to acting admiral and supreme commander designate for South East Asia. The visit that Mountbatten alludes to would have been around the height of his activity in opening land communications with China from Burma. It was Mountbatten who received the formal surrender of the Japanese at Singapore on 12 September 1945. The present copy of “An Introduction to Polo” wonderfully evokes the quintessential heroism of Mountbatten, who played hard as a member of the British aristocracy and sacrificed much when his country needed him.