“Offleys – Knebworth House” Michael Joseph, 1966 Original darkroom print, signed A theatrical feast — lavish, unruly, and alive with character. At first glance, it feels like a lost painting: a great hall glowing with candlelight, tables heavy with food and silverware, and guests in period costume filling every inch of the frame. But step closer — and the scene crackles with Michael Joseph’s unmistakable wit. This is no quiet banquet. It is a riot of gesture and chatter: a woman raises her goblet in wild enthusiasm, a servant leans in with a platter, musicians strike up a tune in the corner, and the gallery above teems with onlookers peering down at the commotion below. Joseph revels in the chaos. Every face in the crowd is performing a story, every object a piece of deliberate clutter: the candelabra tilting in mid-toast, the heaped dishes, the gleaming pewter, and the richly carved architecture of Knebworth House holding the entire spectacle together like a stage set. Created as an advertisement for Offley’s, this photograph transforms a simple commercial commission into a full-blown historical fantasia — a scene that feels part Hogarth, part theatre, and entirely Joseph. The warm sepia toning heightens the illusion of antiquity, while the composition — dense, energetic, masterfully controlled — reveals the photographer’s genius for orchestrating complexity. This is the same imaginative flair that would soon lead to his legendary work with The Rolling Stones, where he again turned a dining hall into a world of stories. Printed in the late sixties, this original darkroom print remains a rare surviving piece from one of Joseph’s most ambitious advertising productions, preserved in the artist’s archive and released by his daughter. Mounted to 50 × 40 cm. It will be packaged with great care and devotion, with the same respect given to every unique, vintage print from Michael Joseph’s personal collection.