A collection of Rolling Stones memorabilia is guaranteed to give satisfaction at auction – so maybe sometimes you can get what you want.
Brian Jones’ original electric guitar he played as a member of the Rolling Stones is one of the highlights at Heritage Auctions, expected to fetch up to $400,000 when it comes up for sale on December 4th.
Noted collector Ali Zayeri, who has been buying Rolling Stones memorabilia for more than 40 years, presents the guitar as the centrepiece of a multi-million dollar collection dedicated to the group that includes rare stage-worn costumes, instruments, posters for early gigs, signed contracts, and other exciting material from the formation of the band in the 1960s.
Jones acquired the Harmony Stratotone guitar in 1962 and played it during the Rolling Stones’ session for their first single Come On/I Want To Be Loved; and he played it on stage with the Rolling Stones in 1962 and 1963, including at the Marquee Club in London.
“Brian Jones’s humble Harmony Stratotone stands as one of the most important instruments in rock and roll history,” said Charles Epting, Director of Consignments at Heritage Auctions. “It was the electric guitar he played on the band’s earliest demos and at their early club gigs, and the very one heard on their debut single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s Come On, which introduced the Stones to the world. Perhaps even more importantly, this was the guitar Jones used to teach a young Keith Richards, helping shape the partnership that would define the band’s sound for decades.”
Exhibitions
The guitar has featured extensively in major Rolling Stones exhibitions around the world, including The Rolling Stones: 50 Years of Satisfaction, at the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame; The Rolling Stones: Exhibitionism at Saatchi Gallery in London; and The Rolling Stones: Unzipped international touring exhibition.
It also appears in photographs of the band including at Ken Colyer’s Club at Studio 51, the Marquee Club, and the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond’s Station Hotel.
“I was sixteen when Paint It Black first reached my ears, and in that moment, something shifted” says Ali Zayeri. “The Rolling Stones spoke to a wilder rhythm than The Beatles ever could for me. I began collecting every piece I could at the time – magazines, newspaper clippings, programmes. Now, so many years later, their music remains a time machine, carrying me back to that rockin’ young man with dreams as loud as the music he adored.”
Other highlights from the sale, which is titled Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones Treasures from the Ali Zayeri Collection, include an extremely rare and early concert poster promoting the Rolling Stones’ performance in Guildford. The Ricky Tick club was notable for hosting some of the Stones’ first shows on their 1963 British tour. Lower down on the bill were the Yardbirds, with one of Eric Clapton’s earliest appearances with that group. The double-sided poster, which also promotes Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, has an estimate of $20,000-40,000.
A designer silk jacket owned and worn by Mick Jagger in 1967 carries the same estimate. Photographs and magazines from the time show Jagger wearing the jacket, including on the Rolling Stones’ Top of the Pops performance of Let’s Spend the Night Together.
Premiere
Another iconic piece of Stones clothing is a suede jacket with fringe detailing worn by Brian Jones, custom-made for the musician by designer Ossie Clark. Numerous photographs show Brian wearing the elaborate jacket, most importantly on-stage for what would be his final live performance with the Rolling Stones, on May 12th, 1968 at the NME Show at the Empire Pool in Wembley, UK. Jones also wore the jacket at the London premiere of the film Rosemary’s Baby with Ringo Starr and Mia Farrow on May 7th, 1968. It is expected to fetch $20,000-40,000.
Another jacket, similar to Jagger’s but worn by Keith Richards including at the London Palladium in 1967, is also expected to fetch $20,000-40,000.
An unused album cover sleeve of an unreleased Rolling Stones album titled We Love You, after their 1967 single of the same name, comes with the reverse left tantalizingly blank without hints of the originally intended tracks. It is believed to be a forerunner to the Stones’ sixth studio album Their Satanic Majesties Request released in December 1967. It is priced at $10,000-20,000.
Guitarist Ronnie Wood is famously a talented artist. Here, one of his notebooks dating to the 1970s, containing artworks, song titles and lyrics for The Stones, with contributions by Mick Jagger, is pitched at $10,000-20,000.
Rare posters, concert programmes, awards, autographed LPs and contracts signed by the band are all expected to make thousands of dollars at the auction, alongside acetates and rare test pressings.
The full catalogue is available at www.ha.com.
Images by Heritage Auctions
See also: Joe Hargan at Morningside Gallery
