The renowned house of Sotheby’s has just published a selection of thousand articles -including many iconic ones- by Freddie Mercury, the singer and leader of Queen. They will be auctioned in London on September 6th.
The singer’s exotic list of items is extremely diverse. They range from handwritten manuscripts of some of the English band’s classics, to a mini-comb that the composer used to comb his moustache, to the crown which he used at the close of the iconic Wembley concert in 1986.
All the pieces that will be auctioned are part of the singer’s personal collection from his London home Garden shelterin exclusive Kensington, a 28-room Georgian building famed for its legendary parties and as his final home, in 1991.
There is everything. The appetizer of Mercury’s huge collection of personal objects includes objects closely related to the image of the exuberant artist: there are the Adidas high top trainers that still have the stains from the only time he used them, at the 1985 Live Aid concert, for example.
The black and red leather jacket in which he recorded one of the clips from the 1980 album The Game, the aviator glasses and the snake-shaped silver bracelet will be part of this mega auction.
To keep up with the prices, there is no shortage of examples: the mini silver comb of just 2 centimeters designed for combing mustaches has a starting price of 900 dollars.
“Although they will not appear in the selection exhibited in New York, the ‘Freddie Mercury: A world of his own’ collection will include the singer’s clothes -often partly designed by him-, accessories of all kinds, books and paintings or Items purchased in Japana country whose culture Mercury particularly admired,” said Cassandra Hatton, vice president of Sotheby’s.
Freddie’s entire collection has been preserved since his death in 1991 and carefully cataloged by his great friend, Mary Austin, whom Mercury called “his only friend.”
Mongolian rhapsody?
One of the writings to be auctioned leaves the question mark over the title of Queen’s greatest anthem, “Bohemian Rhapsody“, released in 1975 on the album “A Night at the Opera”.
In Mercury’s handwriting the song described has a blackout in the title. over there, Mercury changed “Mongolian” to “Bohemian”.
The song would also include other disjointed words added to ‘fandango’, ‘Galileo’ or ‘Scaramouche’ which feature prominently in the operatic part of the song. Words like “matador” (so, in Spanish), or “belladona” are crossed out, which ultimately didn’t play during the recording.
There are other handwritten compositions that are sure to pay good dividends at the auction house. There are the compositions of “We are the Champions”, “Someone to Love” and “Don’t Stop Me Now”Moreover.
Manuscripts in a block of a defunct airline
There are more manuscripts that attract attention. They are sheets with the letterhead of British Midlandsnow defunct airline, and are written in a messy way, sometimes over letters or calendars printed on the original sheets.
“He was the kind of guy who grabbed the first thing at hand when an idea came to him,” explained Hatton, who clarified that this supposed “clutter” can translate into “misguided ideas.”
The idea of \u200b\u200b”Bohemian Rhapsody” consists of 15 pages. There, Mercury wrote – and sometimes carefully erased and corrected – the diverse vocal and musical parts of the masterpiece that catapulted Queen to fame.
Or that when writing “We are the champions”, Mercury already predicted that the song could acquire “hymn characterand indicated the places where the audience would repeat the rhythms and words of the theme.
There are more details, of course. For example, in “Somebody to Love” the notes are written in different colors to clearly mark the different harmonies.
The 15 sheets of “Bohemian Rhapsody” will be the manuscript that starts with the highest price: one and a half million dollars as the base price.
The objects presented this Thursday in New York will take a toll in Los Angeles and Hong Kong, ending up where they will be auctioned on September 6 in London.
The amount that Sothesby’s can obtain in this auction is incalculable. What is certain is that this house will extract oil from the Mercury collection.
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Source: Clarin
