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Post by interval99 on Aug 24, 2023 23:07:01 GMT
This exhibition at sothebys.com in New bond Street is free but be prepared to queue. On Monday at 11.45 queue was from door and around two sides of the block. When returned at two it was much shorter and took about 20 mins to get in.
Any large bags are given in and collected at the end. A fold out map shows the 15 display areas over two floors.
If you want to see all its at least two hours viewing and come 4.30 they close and will send you down to the shop.
Hardback book showing selected items and the provenance as well as freddie story and lots of info and exclusive pictures £50 tote bag £20.
Two thirds of the items are freddies furniture and personal pictures, China, collectibles. The Queen record awards and costumes make up the rest depending on what you want to see. The main Queen costumes, his clothes and the hand written lyrics are upstairs if you are short of time.
While busy you get good chance to view and take non Flash pictures and videos and most items including stage wear is in front of you no cabinets or glass.
It's an amazing collection of furniture and items and stunning quality the man had an amazing visual eye. Apart from some film books no sign of theatre or musical interest other than the head statue of Sir Lawrence Oliver he was given for his involvement in the time musical.
Looks like prices are going through the roof compared to sotherbys estimates. Current hit is his Tiffany silver moustache comb estimated at £600 Current bidding £26000!
worth a look if you are in London and have half day before a show free. Opens at 11 weekday, 12 on weekends. Lots of videos on YouTube as well.
With his passing in 1991 there is little electrical or tech items. Bar a record player and old style American jukebox but must be about 7 or 8 of the old dial and corded bt handsets which must be bewildering to younger visitors that you had to manually dial the number and the wait as the dial went back.Seems to have had a phone in most rooms and used a cream coloured one in his bedroom, Current bid around £1200 for that colour
Sotherbys have done a fantastic job on This display considering the people coming in are not their normal crowd and not aware they have opened their doors to these crowds before think its coming up to 100000 visitors so far. They even have giant freddie moustache over the entrance doorway.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2023 11:25:15 GMT
For Queen fans and people who are fans of him as a cultural iconic this is a must see.
Didn't Freddie collect a lot of Louis XVI vintage furniture I seem to recall so that would have a lot of value.
I wonder if this collection has been in storage or at his old house Garden Lodge which he left to Mary Austin and I believe she was still living there. He left the bulk of his estate to Mary despite his parents, sister and his partner outliving him.
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Post by interval99 on Sept 4, 2023 20:45:24 GMT
Couple of hours on Tuesday to view the collection then it's the first of the auctions on Wednesday.
This is the big money items it seems as they don't show bids yet where the items on the other nights you can see current bids. All seem way over the estimated values so the six million they were saying for the collection over all the auctions likely to be smashed.
While the fully Queen related items will carry premium for some time there seems to be a strict no commercial use to them so not sure if this prevents hard Rock or Ripleys being able to buy and display his stage gear or it has to be private collection only.
The furniture and many collectibles will be more interesting if their value holds on based on freddie owning them.
Of the many pieces I would love to have the wooden dragon throne chair is the main one, estimate was 300 to 500. Current bid is 3500. Seems to be a few about for 1000 to 2000 depending on condition so it's a lot of extra premium to pay based on the previous owner and while for many buyers it will be the fact its a object owned by their idol further down the years away from this hyped up sale in a stand alone auction the value may not hold.
But he had picked up some major rare, beautiful and highly collectable items so the battle between Queen fans and collectors of art could bring some record prices.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2023 21:14:45 GMT
Freddie was an iconic figure and as Interval99 says you'll have specialist music collectors, art collectors and the Queen superfans all bidding against each other. I wonder if some of his friends in the music business might bid on some things, Sir Elton springs to mind.
Happy what would have been his 77th birthday tomorrow for Freddie, we still love you.
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Post by interval99 on Sept 4, 2023 21:46:04 GMT
Indeed his birthday is September 5th 1946. Well noted @original9 had not seen that detailed on any of the auction stories.
Did see on YouTube some footage of his 39th birthday recently and it's still jaw dropping in its scenes of excess even after these years.
Quite an amazing mix of showman, party animal and yet shy and withdrawn at others times as well as creative genius, definitely a one off.
Sadly YouTube also has many clips highlighting how hounding and vicious the media and press were at the time, so it's good to see the regard his music and stage presence is given now over 30 years later.
See the moustache comb is now at 30k so expect it will be much higher when the hammer comes down. It's tiny only seven centimetres long. Considering the fans outcry when it first appeared where they apparently threw razors on stage it's hopefully would appeal to his humour that it's now the item most over it's estimate.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2023 1:51:35 GMT
Freddie lived his life fast and to the full. His 39th birthday party with dwarfs having bowls of a rumoured substance strapped to their heads is a thing of legend.
Once it became clear that he was ill he was certainly hounded and almost a prisioner in his home. But when he passed away he was rightly remembered as one of the greatest showmen and live performers ever. In some ways his legend grew and he is still loved and revered as much by people who were born after he died or too young to know his music when he was alive as those older fans who actually bought Queen records and saw the original line up live.
Freddie was no saint and lived an opulent carefree life but no one knew the dangers back then but he could write the songs that an ordinary person who was as far removed as possible from Freddie's lifestyle would love and sing along to.
Freddie probably grew the moustache as he liked the NY gay/club scene look and a load of people in all ways of life had them in late 1970's don't forget. Also he was aware of his prominent teeth and maybe felt the tashe made them less obvious especially in close up shots.
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Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2023 10:59:44 GMT
Freddie lived his life fast and to the full. His 39th birthday party with dwarfs having bowls of a rumoured substance strapped to their heads is a thing of legend.. ‘Legend’ as in ‘not true’! The party that sparked the rumour wasn’t even his birthday party. It was the Queen album launch for Jazz in New Orleans. They basically invited all the New Orleans club performers in as they’d have stolen their customers for the night by throwing a huge party - there were some dwarf performers, and that sparked the rumour off. But they were nothing to do with Freddie, really- he didn’t pick them. And they didn’t have cocaine on their heads. Not necessary anyway as the guests mostly supplied their own drugs of choice. |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2023 14:37:15 GMT
Thanks for clearing up the story Kathryn, his 39th birthday was the one where he insisted everyone went in drag and no dobut lots of stories came out of it. I guess the dwarfs with cocaine bowls on their head suited the sort of headonistic parties we were lead to associate with Freddie. I have never read in detail what or if any drugs the members of Queen were rumoured to have done, to be fair they didn't have the reputation that other bands of their era had around their wild antics.
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Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2023 14:53:47 GMT
Oh Freddie did lots of coke.
And he was far from the only member of Queen to do drugs, drink a lot, have lots of sex, and party to excess.
That was half the point of being a rockstar!
The reason the Jazz album launch party spawned so many legends is that it was full of tabloid journalists also getting drunk and high. Then they had to come up with stories to justify their benders and expense reports.
That was why the band invited them, of course - it was all a publicity stunt. Queen were really good at publicity stunts!
It became a problem in later years because of Freddie’s health and the moralising that went with on as they morphed stories about Queen as a band into stories about Freddie Mercury’s disgusting personal moral failings. So those stories got walked back by people wanting to defend Freddie. But of course once the myth is out there you can’t put it back. Particularly since the moralising and disgust has faded away, and now is just seems like a fun story.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2023 17:06:11 GMT
I knew Freddie partied to excess and was a very hedonistic person. He was likely the wild one in the band, John and Brian always seemed more thoughtful, quiet types with Roger somewhere in the middle. No doubt being at college/uni in the 1960's and the rock scene in the 1970's and 80's they came across a lot of drugs.
I've never heard that songs were written under the influence of substances like other major bands were rumoured to have done and as such a great live band they all had to be coherent and with it to perform. Whatever they may have done inbetween shows or at the end of the tour they always did a great live show.
Freddie was certainly no angel and if he had known what we know now I'm sure he would have tonned his private life down. But many partied hard and lived life to the full like him, sadly he didn't survive and we still all miss him.
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Post by TallPaul on Sept 8, 2023 17:17:04 GMT
Anyway, I have a door for sale. One careful owner and no graffiti.
Yours for just £412,749! 🙂
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Post by kathryn on Sept 8, 2023 17:53:45 GMT
I knew Freddie partied to excess and was a very hedonistic person. He was likely the wild one in the band, John and Brian always seemed more thoughtful, quiet types with Roger somewhere in the middle. Freddie had his wild days in the late-70s to mid-80s; he calmed down considerably as he aged, though, with Champagne and shopping being his main vices in his later years. Hence the art in the auction. I’ve read the books by Queen’s roadies and assistants. They were all partying, including the roadies. It was a big part of what they were in it for. The others have simply done a better job of keeping the details of their private life under wraps - they’d usually go out separately and then end up at the same bar or sometimes brothel (where Freddie would just be chatting to the girls) at the end of the night. |
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Post by Marwood on Sept 8, 2023 20:22:13 GMT
I thought it was the party he had at Pikes in Ibiza that is the stuff of legend, with fireworks going off that could be seen from Africa 😝
I won’t start on the dwarves stories/rumours, this is a family friendly place 🤪
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2023 23:42:28 GMT
I cannot believe what the garden door went for, if it had been something he'd had all his famous friends doodle on or sign then I could have understood it's value more.
I was waiting for his hoover from I Want to Break Free to be listed.
Hopefully all the items have gone to people who will preserve his legacy.
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Post by interval99 on Sept 12, 2023 22:37:59 GMT
Last auction on Wednesday if you wanted a freddie souvenir and have a few thousand to spend. The current second to last item is the silver moustache comb currently at £100000 and expect that to rocket in the final push.
Quite incredible the prices on most items and most way out of reach of most fans but everything seems to have gone for a premium whether directly Queen related or one of his collectable or furniture.
A lot of money invested with the only provenance that it was in his home and the hope that he touched or brought it himself at some time.
The dragon throne chair I liked went for 44k and a side board 32k (hammer and fees prices think there's vat on top of those) both original estimates were around 600.
Sotherbys have presented the sale and display of his items very well and it's been interesting for many of us who never dreamed of going to their showroom or following a auction a glimpse of a world you need a very healthy bank account to enjoy normally.
Hopefully the new owners will enjoy and treasure their purchases for years to come.
On ebay there is a ongoing auction which could give some fans still an affordable chance, the Sotherbys freddie auction tag of lot 1529 (China plates I believe which sold for 5k) is up for sale current bids £40!
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