1951 Mickey Mantle Bowman Rookie Type 1 and other Yankees

[Swadewade51]

Hello!

I wanted to share a photo with you all that is headlining Heritage’s March 24th Photo Legends Showcase Auction, #66151.

This beautiful Mickey Mantle Type 1, used for his 1951 Bowman, 1953 Topps, and 1952 Berk Ross will be the 4th known copy to come to light. I’m proud to have worked for the seller alongside my friends and fellow hobbyists, Jeff and Henry (new user here HReyno), to bring this photo to auction.

Included with this iconic Mantle photo are 32 other team press photos shot by Bob Olen, the team photographer. 14 of those are also card used images. This collection is also the only known complete photograph set from the 1951 World Series Champions. I will continue to update this post below as these are listed and given type designations.

The journey these photos took from New York in 1951 to now is a wild one. This lot was a childhood gift to the seller from his relative and Yankees pitcher, Jack Kramer. He pitched for the Yankees in 1951 and retired from baseball at the end of the season. Like many of our collecting journeys, Kramer’s relative grew apart from his collection as he got older and this lot was left at his parents house in Louisiana. In 2005, Jack Kramer passed away and three weeks later Katrina devastated the area. After the family home was flooded with three feet of water and many family heirlooms had been lost, the 1951 New York Yankee lot remained mostly unscathed. In his foresight, the owner put the photos with the original envelope from the Yankees in a ziploc bag in attempt to keep the Louisiana humidity and moisture out. Over 15 years later and here we are today.

Thank you for reading! If you are at Burbank this weekend, the photo is set up at their booth.

(All decisions to authenticate, slab, and ultimately sell these photos were made between Heritage and the seller. I merely conducted some research on the lot and am here to provide it’s backstory).

-Wade, Jeff, and Henry