Historical Medals

FINLAND, Olympic Games, Helsinki, 1952, a silver-gilt Winner’s medal by G. Cassioli, Victory seated at left, holding wreath, Colosseum at right, rev. male athlete carried on the shoulders of team-mates, edge foundry-stamped lion crown, 916h y6, 50mm, 69.72g (Gadoury/Vescovi 125.1). Good very fine, extremely rare £8,000-£10,000

J. McLane Collection, RR Auction 640 (Amherst, USA), 21 July 2022, lot 4055, with certificate.

James Price McLane Jr (1930-2020), born in Pittsburgh and raised by a single mother in Akron, Ohio, won a swimming scholarship to the historic Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, as a result of winning the 4-mile open-air swim at the national Amateur Athletic Union championships in 1943. As a student at Phillips, mentored by Robert Kiphuth (1890-1967), the legendary coach of the Yale swimming team, McLane, known as ‘Fishy’ to his friends, set national high school records in the 200, 220 and 440 yard freestyle events. Between his upper and senior years at Phillips McLane earned a place on the USA national team that competed at the 1948 London Olympics, where as a 17-year old he won a silver medal in the 400-metres freestyle and gold medals in both the 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay (with team-mates Wally Ris, Wally Wolf and Bill Smith) and the 1,500-metre freestyle events; in the latter, his time of 19 minutes 18.5 seconds was almost 13 seconds ahead of the Australian John Marshall, who place second. His success in the water continued with Kiphuth at Yale University, where he helped the Bulldogs swimming and diving team win two National Collegiate Athletic Association championships. In 1952 McLane returned to Olympic competition at the Helsinki Games as the captain of Team USA. He placed fourth in the 1,500-metre race and took home his final gold medal when he anchored the 4 x 200-metre freestyle relay (with team-mates Wayne Moore, Bill Woolsey and Ford Konno) to a new Olympic record of 8 minutes 31.1 seconds. He retired from swimming after winning three gold medals at the 1955 Pan American Games and, in 1970, was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. In business McLane enjoyed a distinguished career, working for Life magazine and General Mills and retiring to Ipswich, Massachusetts, where he died at the age of 90