A large-format photo of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Yankees manager Miller Huggins, taken by Louis Van Oeyen, is up for bid at Love of the Game Auctions, already attracting an initial bid of $25,000.
Classified as a Type I photo by PSA, meaning it was developed from the original negative within two years of being taken, the image captures the Yankee legends along with their skipper in 1927, a team which is often considered the greatest in baseball history.
Van Oeyen’s photography is highly coveted by collectors and historians of the game. The National Pastime Museum wrote, “few photographers framed baseball’s early legends as cleanly and classically as the Cleveland-based pioneer Louis Van Oeyen.”
Photos including the pairing of Ruth and Gehrig often attract large sums at auction. Another Van Oeyen picture of the duo alone on the same July day, classified as a Type II photo (developed from the original negative more than two years after it was taken), sold for more than $90,000 at Hunt Auctions in 2020.
The most valuable examples of Type I photography are often images that were later used in material such as baseball cards, as is the case with the most expensive Type I photo ever sold: A 1951 Mickey Mantle “Action Shot” by Bob Olsen used for Mantle’s 1951 Bowman rookie card ($843,750).
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.