Item #39458 Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967. Brian JONES.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.
Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.

157.

JONES, Brian.

Two original 8x10 press photographs together with two exceedingly rare stickers relating to Brian Jones's arrest for drug possession in May 1967.

The first photograph shows Jones in the back of a Rolls-Royce alongside 'Stash' de Rola leaving West London Magistrates Court the day after the bust. The second shows Jones in the back of a Rolls after his appearance on December 12 in the court of the Lord Chief Justice for his appeal.

Initiated in the previous December with the arrest of John 'Hoppy' Hopkins, the police raid on Jones's apartment on May 10 formed part of an orchestrated attack by the tabloid press and the establishment on the 'underground' and the drug use of its most prominent figures (the defendants in the Redlands bust appeared on the same day at the magistrate's court in Chichester). Counter-protests and campaigns were launched in response and pot legalisation rallies held, and the two stickers here, though their precise origins are unknown, offer fugitive glimpses of the widely felt sense of persecution.

The first (5.2x7.4cm.), with its slogan 'Let Brian Breathe', seems to allude to Jones's asthma as well as his potentially constricted freedom, and the second (5.5x9.5cm.), requesting "the pleasure of your company at the ritual sacrifice of Mr. Brian Jones", refers to his upcoming trial on October 30 (a 'Free Brian Jones' demo, involving Caroline Coon, Jeff Dexter, Suzy Creamcheese and Chris Jagger, marched down the King's Road in Chelsea immediately after his jail sentence was handed down).

The two stickers, originally acquired almost 40 years ago from Alexis Korner, one of Jones's earliest musician friends, were designed for pasting up on the tube or around town, an ephemeral life suggesting that they are almost certainly the only copies extant.

Both photographs have the original press caption labels and photo agency stamps to verso; slight upper right corner creasing to the December 12 print, o/w Very Good plus. Some decomposition of the glue to verso of second sticker and trace of paper residue to verso of the first, o/w both Very Good.

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