Mick Jagger love letters to be auctioned by Sotheby's

Mick Jagger performs onstage during the 53rd annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 13, 2011, in Los Angeles. / Getty

Handwritten letters from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to his former lover Marsha Hunt are going to be up for auction next month in London.

Sotheby's said Saturday that Hunt, an American-born singer who was the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit "Brown Sugar" and bore Jagger's first child, has tasked the auction house with selling 10 letters written from the set of Jagger's film "Ned Kelly," which was shooting in Australia.

Hunt said the letters chronicling their "delicate love affair" and secret history touch on subjects such as the first moon landing and John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

"When a serious historian finally examines how and why Britain's boy bands affected international culture and politics, this well-preserved collection of Mick Jagger's hand written letters will be a revelation," she said in a statement distributed by the auction house.

Sotheby's books specialist Gabriel Heaton said the letters sent in the summer of 1969 show a "poetic and self-aware" 25-year-old Jagger.

"They provide a rare glimpse of Jagger that is very different from his public persona: passionate but self-contained, lyrical but with a strong sense of irony," Heaton said.

Sotheby's said the collection, up for auction on Dec. 12, is expected to fetch between$111,300 and $159,000.

[lifeduringwartime]

I read on another sight these were quite thoughtful not like today's phone sex. ***** is broke and needs money, my guess she offered Mick a chance to buy them, he told her don't need 'em. LDWT out.

[Ericwvb]

You would think that very rich Sir Mick Jagger would flip his couch cushions over and buy these letters with his small change; the fact that he's not doing it suggests he wants them out in public.