LOS ANGELES, CA.- Mickey Mantle’s Type I photo used for his iconic 1952 Bowman card will be auctioned by Huggins & Scott Auctions from July 27-August 9. Interested bidders may participate in the auction online.

Legendary baseball photographer Bill Jacobellis shot Mantle during the Yankee rookie’s 1951 season for the 1952 Bowman cards. This is the first time the black and white contact proof with its previous unknown dugout background has been made available to the public.

Contact proofs have recently become popular with collectors. They have crystal-clear image quality and are the closest thing to the negative. Contact proofs were not developed for newswire services and newspapers on a tight deadline but utilized in studios and sports card companies such as Topps and Bowman. Type I original photos of Topps/Bowman photographers Bill Jacobellis and Bob Olen first surfaced at auction in 2014. This May, Huggins & Scott sold a 1951 Mickey Mantle rookie photo shot by Jacobellis for $21,500. Last year Huggins & Scott sold Bob Olen’s 1965 Topps rookie photo of Joe Namath for $66,000. In recent years, Mantle’s 1951 Bowman and 1952 Topps photos sold for $72,000 and $60,000 and a 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig photo by Charles Conlon sold for $60,000.

The photo has Jacobellis’ copyright stamp on the verso and comes with a full letter of authenticity from PSA/DNA.

Bidding on the Mickey Mantle contact proof photo begins at $2,500. In 2017, a PSA 9 1952 Mickey Mantle Bowman sold for $74,400.

Additional information on the photo can be found here.