On May 4th 1963 photographer Philip Townsend took the first official photographs of the Rolling Stones. His brief was to make them the opposite of the Beatles. He told them to wear their normal clothes and walked them around the streets of Chelsea to Cheyne Walk, a disused wharf on the Thames and finally to a pub, The Australian. A billion images later the Stones are still with us and Townsend went on to photograph everyone who was anyone throughout the sixties. This archive of 45 images includes four of the Stones from that first day in 1964. The archive is stored in two large Ilford boxes, one labeled with Townsend's name and address. All of the images are signed, blind stamped and numbered; the vast majority are AP or 1/50. Most are recent prints intended for exhibition. Some are contemporary, ie the sixties, with his ink stamp to the verso. See below for dimensions. The archive includes The Beatles at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh in London; Andrew Loog Oldham clutching two ten pound notes; Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in an iconic shot epitomising the two sides of success; Marlon Brando dancing with Princess Alexandra of Kent; Princess Grace of Monaco; a young Jimmy Page with early band Carter Lewis and The Southerners; Charlotte Rampling; Twiggy; Gene Pitney; Johnnie Ray; Susannah York; Jane Lumb; David Crosby on stage; Harold Wilson; The Searchers; Nubar Gulbenkian; Paul Getty; Alex Guinness; Frankie Howerd on a skateboard*; Grania Villiers-Stuart and many others. A unique and poignant archive. * Yes, really. See the image below...