Hamilton based Swingeing London on a photograph published in the Daily Sketch showing Mick Jagger and Hamilton's then art dealer Robert Fraser in the back of a police van, handcuffed together and shielding their faces from the camera flashes of press photographers. The pair had been arrested, along with Keith Richards, on 12 February 1967 for the possession of marijuana during a party thrown by Richards' at his farmhouse in Sussex. Their arrest and subsequent trial sparked a media frenzy. The press exploited the sensational potential of the story to the full, describing the 'strong, sweet smell of incense' that greeted raiding policemen and the spectacle of 'a young woman wearing only a fur-skin rug' seated on a sofa (see lot 119). Fraser and Jagger were sentenced to three and six months respectively. On appeal Jagger's sentence was reduced to a fine, but Fraser's was rejected and he spent four months in Wormwood Scrubs Prison. Hamilton described his personal feelings regarding the trial as 'a strong personal indignation at the insanity of legal institutions which could jail anyone for the offence of self-abuse of drugs'.