A set of Rolling Stones letters found tucked away in a family display cabinet points to a little-known romance between Brian Jones and a young London shopworker in 1964. The archive, which includes personal notes, snapshots, and signatures from Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, is expected to sell for thousands at auction.
The letters belonged to Sylvia Wainwright, who was living in a rented flat in Chiswick, West London, working in a clothes shop and applying to study dress design at the Royal Academy of Art. Her son, Terry Wainwright, found them while sorting through her belongings after her death earlier this year at the age of 78.
What was found in Sylvia Wainwright’s papers?
Terry, from Thornton-Cleveleys near Blackpool, said he had heard the family story before, but had not exactly filed it under verified history.
“Many years ago, my mom told me how in the early sixties she and her sister had briefly been dating Mick Jagger and Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones, but we took it with a pinch of salt,” he said.
That changed when he was clearing her home in Knott End-on-Sea, Lancashire. At the back of a display cabinet, he found an envelope containing the letters and photographs.
“It was the last thing I came across,” he said. “These personal letters with messages from the band and signatures. I did my research too, and all of it adds up.”
He added that the documents appeared to have been carefully kept for decades: “They were hidden at the back of a display cabinet, so were obviously long treasured by my mom.”
How do the letters place her inside the early Stones circle?
The correspondence was written to Sylvia’s sister, Lynn, and captures a moment when the Rolling Stones were famous, but not yet the global machine they would become. In other words, the machinery was still warming up, and the guest list was already getting out of hand.
In one letter, Sylvia writes: “You’ll never guess who I’ve got in the flat with me at the moment? Three of that disreputable group called the Stones. They are busy making plans for their tour in America in April.”
Another note describes a gathering at Mick Jagger’s flat: “That party at Mick’s was an absolute WOW! Everybody was there, and I mean everybody.”
Her letters also mention nights out with “all the pop stars,” parties in Chiswick, and plans around the band’s American tour. Names appearing in the archive include Jeff Beck of The Yardbirds, Christine Shrimpton, the sister of model Jean Shrimpton, and actor Roger Moore, then starring as Simon Templar in The Saint, whom Sylvia had served at work.
What do they reveal about Brian Jones?
The most striking detail is the way the letters present Brian Jones. Not as the later rock casualty with a storm around him, but as a 22-year-old turning up with flowers, an Easter egg, and, apparently, a 1,000-piece jigsaw. Romance, but with admin.
In one letter, Sylvia writes: “Brian should be here in about ¼ of an hour. It doesn’t seem 2 minutes since I got up.”
Jones also appears directly in the papers. One message signed by him reads: “Hi love! Brian here. How are you? Pity I wasn’t here to see you when you come next week. Never mind – maybe someday. Lots of love, Brian.”
One note is signed by Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, which gives the archive more heft than the usual rock memorabilia scrap with a famous name and not much else attached.
Why is the auction house calling it rare?
The archive is due to be auctioned at Hansons Auctioneers in Etwall, Derbyshire, with an estimate of $2,010 to $2,680.
Claire Howell, music expert at Hansons Auctioneers, said the documents stand out because they combine signed material with a first-hand account from inside the band’s orbit.
“At the time, the Rolling Stones were famous but not the global megastars they would later become,” Howell said. “Sylvia’s letters are littered with some of the most famous names of the decade, as well as giving an insight into a band on the brink of worldwide stardom.”
She said the letters also offer a more personal view of Jones, the band’s founder and one of its most complicated figures. Jones died in 1969 at the age of 27, only a few years after the letters were written.
How does this fit into Jones’s known personal life?
Jones’s relationships have long been part of Rolling Stones history, not least because several were highly public and turbulent. His partners included German-Italian model Anita Pallenberg, who later left him for Keith Richards, Linda Lawrence, who later married Donovan, and German singer Nico.
Howell said the Sylvia letters add a different note to that record.
“These letters reveal a thoughtful young lover who dropped off 1,000-piece jigsaws at Sylvia’s flat, seemingly nothing like his behaviour in his later highly-strung relationships,” she said.
For collectors, the value is not only in the signatures. As Howell put it, “Collectors see thousands of signed scraps. What is rare is a first-hand contemporary account with an unknown, and touching, romantic connection.”
She added that the archive matters because it was written before the 1960s were heavily mythologised, offering “a wonderful insight into an on-the-brink band.”
A young band, a London flat, a few letters, and one very patient jigsaw. Sometimes the archive does the work without needing much help.
