1939-40 Mickey Mantle's Personal Elementary School Class Photograph with Earliest Known Mantle Autograph from The Steven Lane ...

Description

Writing on verso entirely in young Mickey's hand!

1939-40 Mickey Mantle's Personal Elementary School Class Photograph with Earliest Known Mantle Autograph from The Steven Lane Collection, PSA/DNA Type 1. Like Babe Ruth before him, Mickey Mantle emerged from the humblest of childhoods to become the toast of New York City and a sports immortal, and this photograph finds the Comet posing with his Commerce, Oklahoma classmates at about eight years of age. While any such early image of the Yankee great would carry enormous collecting intrigue, this particular specimen amplifies that intrigue exponentially due to its original ownership by young Mickey himself. That's him in the front row, second from the right, dressed in his best for the occasion but showing a hint of that deep rural poverty in a shirt with sleeves a few inches too short for his growing frame.

Flip the well-loved 5x7" silver gelatin photograph over and we find all subjects identified in Mickey's youthful pencil script, including himself, thus the earliest known autograph of the legendary Hall of Famer. It's remarkably similar to the rare and coveted rookie-era format found on early 1950's Yankees team balls. Two circled names of female subjects--a classmate and his teacher--are enhanced with arrow-struck hearts, presumably a symbol of puppy love affection.

Clipped corners suggest removal from an old album, and some scattered creasing causes little distraction and is concentrated on the left side of the image, remaining well clear of the image of Mantle and his signature on verso, which is directly behind that image. It's unquestionably one of the most important and desirable photographs of Mickey Mantle in existence, even rarer than the Type 1 specimen of the image used for Mantle's 1951 Bowman rookie card which likewise appears within this Platinum Night sale. Encapsulated by PSA/DNA, Type 1.

More Information: The Steven Lane Collection

Steven Lane is a 69-year-old, semi-retired divorce attorney living in New Orleans. While his occupation has been the law, his passion has always been baseball. More specifically, the New York Yankees. Over the past six decades, he has amassed one of the largest private collections of Yankees-related memorabilia south of Cooperstown, New York. And this August, Heritage Auctions is proud to present Part Two of his massive collection.

"My daughter really has no interest in most of it," explained Lane, "so I thought it was time to share this incredible collection with other people who could appreciate it."

Lane's collection consists of thousands of items with heavy emphasis placed on the late, great Mickey Mantle. There are authentic, high-end pieces he's obtained through private transactions, and there are items he's acquired directly from the Mantle family. Asked to break it all down by category, he said: "Ten percent autographs, twenty percent cards and seventy percent memorabilia."

This second edition focuses exclusively on The Commerce Comet with some of the most unique Mantle items that exist. Including: Mantle's earliest known signed photograph, penned by a 7 year old Mantle on the back of his 4th grade class photo; the earliest known Mantle signed ball, autographed after his first minor league game and The Mick’s personal copy of his 1953 contract with the Yankees.

The Beginning
Born and bred in Brooklyn, Lane was introduced to baseball by his father, Lawrence. They attended their first Yankees home game together in 1961. Steven was immediately hooked. The Dodgers and Giants had both left town for the West Coast, and the Mets had yet to debut, so the Yankees were the only game in town.
The '61 campaign also marked the season that Mantle and Yankees teammate Roger Maris were locked in their collective pursuit of Babe Ruth's single-season home run record of 60, which the Bambino set in 1927. Even though Maris eventually broke Ruth's record with his 61st home run on the final day of the season, it was Mantle who earned Lane's allegiance.

"I hate to say it, but I was one of those people who felt Mantle had been with the Yankees all those years and if you read the papers back then they kind of painted Maris as this bad guy and what right did he have to break Ruth's record. I mean, Mickey had overcome all these injuries over so many years with the team, so I took Mantle's side and I've always been a Mantle fan."

He's been acquiring Yankees memorabilia ever since but it all started with Topps baseball cards. Initially he was buying wax packs at the corner store or getting boxes of Topps cards from his grandfather. But over time, his emphasis moved toward Mantle in particular.

"I started with baseball cards but as I got a job and my income level increased, I was able to buy higher-priced items. At some point - and I'm not exactly sure it was a conscious decision - I decided to move from cards to memorabilia, really before anybody else was collecting any of this stuff.

"And I'm not going to say it was planned, but I started to realize I was unknowingly tracing Mickey Mantle's entire life from essentially when he was about seven or eight years old up until he died [August 13, 1995]. And I just kept filling it in over time."

Meeting Mickey
Lane met Mantle on a few occasions, the first of which took place at a first of its kind Baseball Fantasy Camp in Florida in 1985. It was there that he secured his first Mantle signature directly from The Mick.
"I had Mickey sign a baseball for me," he said. "It wasn't even a ball I purchased, but I ended up having that same ball signed by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio. It's easily the most treasured personal item I have in the collection. I didn't pay a penny for it, but that was my first serious memorabilia item. It still means the world to me."
He also met Mantle in 1989 and again in 1994. During their last meeting, at which Lane shared a personal pic of the two, Mickey told Lane that he should attend Mantle's upcoming Fantasy Camp the next year. Unfortunately, Mantle died before that could happen, but Lane's dream of acquiring more Mantle memorabilia continued to grow.

Writing the Book
In late 2022, based on his love of Mantle and the slugger's Hall of Fame career, Lane released a hardcover book entitled Mickey Mantle: A Life in Memorabilia. It chronicles his extensive collection of Mantle collectibles but also pays tribute to Mickey's 18 years in the major leagues.

"My book is a museum in a book," said Lane. "People who could never have possession of these items can now flip through the book and see these one-of-a-kind pieces that have only been in the hands of, to a great extent, Mickey Mantle, members of the Mantle family, or me."

Starting in May, collectors will have the chance to obtain many of these coveted artifacts. In addition to the Mantle cards going up for bid, Lane is excited to see collector reaction surrounding a beautiful 1978 New York Yankees World Series Trophy he obtained.

"I'd like to mix it up so that there are things that are attainable for everyone," he said "We've got autographed bats, balls, yearbooks, you name it.

"I go to baseball card shows and to The National every year and I've seen, over the past five years, an increasingly younger crowd, some of whom are familiar with Mantle and some of whom are not. But his name is the one name that is always out there and I just feel like now is the time to share it. I know there are people out there who would like to have these items."