Buccellati Sterling Silver Trophy - Boca Raton Royal Palm Polo Club 1972-1980

Our client's large sterling silver trophy cup by Buccellati, the J. Myer Schine Annual Memorial Polo Trophy, was apparently  commissioned by the Royal Palm Polo Club to honor annual winners of competitions from 1972 to 1980, including seven teams led by John T. Oxley, leader of the club.  15 1/2 inches tall and 10 1/2 inches across and weight of 4,450 grams including wooden base.  Engraved on one side with the figure of a polo player on horseback engraved with the trophy title on the shoulder.  With its original fitted case.  Signed in two places Buccellati Italy STERLING 925.

Condition is good.  There are light scuffs, scratches, tiny dent beneath the polo player, a modest level of tarnish, and wear to the edges of the wooden base.  Case in good condition with dust/debris to the interior lining.

Junius Myer Schine (1890-1971) was an influential figure in the early development of polo in and around Boca Raton.  A successful entrepreneur, he developed and owned numerous theaters and hotels in New York and elsewhere. Developer of the Boca Raton Hotel and Club, he sold it in 1956 to Arthur Vining Davis (1867-1962) who built polo fields adjacent to the hotel. Davis went on to create the Boca Resort and Club, later renamed the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club, and relocated the polo field to a property on Glades Road, and a year later relocated it again to a 90-acre site further out on Glades where the Marriot Courtyard was later built.

John T. Oxley (1909-1996), a player from Tulsa who took up the sport at the age of 46 in 1955, became manager in 1968, promoting south Florida as “the Winter Polo Capital of the World.” Two years later as a playing captain of the Royal Palm Polo Club, he defeated Prince Phillip’s Windsor team on their turt, becoming the first U.S. team to claim England’s Gold Cup. In 1970 Oxley acquired 781 acres between Military Trail & Jog Road on which he built a multi-million dollar sports complex that included seven polo fields.  He went on to win two U.S. Open Polo Championships, the USPA Rolex Gold Cup and Silver Cup, the Money Waterbury Cup, among many other competitions, including the International Gold Cup at the age of 83, the oldest player to do so. Years later the Oxley family sold off 641 acres that eventually became the upscale residential community, Polo Club of Boca Raton. (Source: Riviera Civic Association.)

Winning club teams and their players are celebrated on engraved silver panels as follows:

1972
BOCA RATON
JOE CASEY
JULIAN HIPWOOD
GONZALO TANOIRA
CLARK HETHERINGTON

1973
HOUSTON
WILL FARISH, III
DEL CARROLL
PETE ORTHWEIN
CHUCK WRIGHT

1974
BOCA RATON
CORKY LINFOOT
JIM MacGINLEY
DR. BILLY LINFOOT
JOHN OXLEY

1975
BOCA RATON
CORKY LINFOOT
JIM MacGINLEY
DR. BILLY LINFOOT
JOHN OXLEY

1976
BOCA RATON
CORKY LINFOOT
JAMIE MACKAY
DR. BILLY LINFOOT
JOHN OXLEY

1977
BOCA RATON
CORKY LINFOOT
MEMO GRACIDA
ROY BARRY
JOHN OXLEY

1978
BOCA RATON
JOHN OXLEY
PASCUAL SALATINO
HECTOR MERLOS
TOM HARRIS

1979
FORT LAUDERDALE
JAKE SIEBER
JULIAN HIPWOOD
BART EVANS
JACK OXLEY

1980
BOCA RATON
JOHN T OXLEY
MIKE CARNEY
GONZALO PIERES
HEATH MANNING, JR.