“Cointreau @ Work” Michael Joseph, London, 1960s Original darkroom print, signed A moment of cocktail-hour theatre — stylish, sly, and perfectly poised. At first glance, it’s a simple domestic scene: a woman pours a drink, a man adjusts his tie, and a couple reclines on the sofa in the background. But look closer — and the photograph begins to hum with narrative. Is she serving or seducing? Is he nervous or smug? And what of the couple behind them, half-amused witnesses to the performance? Every gesture is deliberate; every object, a prop. The label of the Cointreau bottle gleams like a stage light, the bowl of nuts placed just so, and the room itself — all mid-century texture and light — becomes a microcosm of 1960s sophistication and satire. Here, Michael Joseph turns an advertising setup into something far richer: a study of human choreography, the comedy of manners distilled into one elegant frame. This is Cointreau at Work, but the real subject is not the liqueur — it’s the theatre of people being people. Joseph’s genius was his ability to see both the surface and what lay beneath. While his later Beggars Banquet portraits roared with swagger and noise, this piece whispers. It is stillness wrapped in irony, a scene so perfectly balanced it feels half-spontaneous, half-scripted. Printed in the 1960s, this original darkroom print carries the warm tonal depth typical of Joseph’s advertising work — sepia-inflected, cinematic, and unmistakably his. Preserved by the artist’s daughter, this rare vintage print stands as both a witty period piece and a timeless glimpse of character, proof that even in his commercial commissions, Joseph’s artistry was never just about the product — it was about people. Mount size 50cm high by 40cm wide — to be carefully packaged and swiftly dispatched, with the same devotion that’s gone into preserving these unique surviving works from Michael Joseph’s archive.