This September, more than 30 years after Mercury died of effects from Aids in 1991, Sotheby's will hold a huge sale of around 1,500 items from his Kensington home, Garden Lodge, in six parts. Mercury gave his old girlfriend and close friend Mary Austin the West London house and all of its things. Austin kept Mercury's house and its items almost exactly as they were when he died 30 years ago. Now, she wants to sell her collection, but it's not clear if she'll also sell the house. Mercury bought Garden Lodge in 1980. The head of single-owner sales at Sotheby's London, David Macdonald, said that the things inside are "really a 1980s extravaganza, but sprinkled with brilliant things."I've worked at Sotheby's for about 20 years, and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it. It's on the same size as "Chatsworth: The Attic Sale," a three-day event held by Sotheby's in 2010." Macdonald also compares the auction to the sale of Elton John things at Sotheby's in 1988, where more than 2,000 items sold for more than $8.2 million.
The Mercury collection includes hand-written lyrics for Queen songs (among them, the working lyrics to We Are the Champions, est £200,000-£300,000, and Killer Queen, est £50,000-£70,000) alongside original items worn on stage such as the crown and accompanying cloak worn for the finale rendition of God Save The Queen during his last tour with Queen, The Magic Tour in 1986 (est £60,000-£80,000). The crown, which looks like the coronation crown, will be on show in the windows of Sotheby's New Bond Street from today (April 26) until May 5 as King Charles prepares to be crowned. But there are also things that show a more private side of Mercury, like the fact that he liked Japanese art, studio furniture, and Victorian paintings in particular. Other things that really interested him were art glass (which may have been influenced by the glass collection of his manager, John Reid), 20th-century works on paper by artists like Matisse, Picasso, and Chagall, and Victorian pictures. He especially liked James Tissot and other slightly scandalous 19th-century figures. In fact, the last painting Mercury bought was a portrait of his mistress by Tissot. He got it from Christie's in October 1991, a month before he died. At Sotheby's sales, the Type of Beauty (1880) painting now has the highest estimate, at £400,000-£600,000.
Mercury bought mostly at auctions from Christie's and Sotheby's, where he was a well-known person in the 1980s, based on his own instincts and without the help of an advisor. Macdonald says, "There are still people who work at Sotheby's who remember him coming in, looking at works, and wanting to talk about them." "He bought things with love until the end, and it was very moving to see where they were hung in the house. A lot of things were set up so he could see them from his sofa or bed. Most of the art glass was in his bedroom, and the Tissot was hung so he could see it from his sofa. Macdonald divides Mercury's reasons for collecting into four main groups: "Either to add to a serious collection that interested him, like a beautiful pair of silver candlesticks for the table, for use, like a beautiful pair of silver candlesticks for the table, for fun, like something that made him laugh, or for his own professional use, like his poems or stage costumes. All of the things for sale seem to fit into one of those boxes." Sotheby's will take some of the best pieces from the sale to New York, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong in June. From August 4 to September 5, the whole collection will be shown at New Bond Street in London. Three live sales will be held in London, and the other three will be held online. The first auction will be in the evening on September 6, and Macdonald says it will be "just like Freddie would have wanted it to be: an old-fashioned black tie evening sale. It's like a greatest hits album; each area at Sotheby's is choosing things they really liked." There is no promise that the money will be collected, and Macdonald thinks the total low estimate will be around £6 million. But, he says from the depths of Sotheby's London warehouse, "there are still piles of boxes to go through. I just opened a box of porcelain, and at the bottom was a beautiful Art Deco Cartier clock."
Jean Dubreil