Freddie Mercury’s World – Part 1 – Japanese Art & Fashion

Two photos side-by-side. On the left is a brightly coloured kimono. The thick long-sleeved robe is decorated in stencil dye, with branches of blossoming plum, stalks of bamboo and pine, interspersed with scattered fan-shaped images depicting ox-carts, peonies, pine, cranes in flight, chrysanthemums and irises. On the right, meanwhile is a photo of Freddie Mercury in Japan, looking thoughtful as he strokes his chin. He's wearing a loose-fitting brightly multi-coloured jacket with a weaved pattern, and a pair of sunglasses.

Over two years ago, back in September 2023, Sotheby’s auctioned off nearly 35,000 items (in roughly 1,500 lots) that once belonged to the legendary Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, from his home at Garden Lodge in Kensington. The event was called Freddie Mercury: A World Of His Own, and included everything from fashion to furniture, artworks to awards, ornaments to instruments, printed books to handwritten lyrics, and much more, proving that he was quite the avid collector to say the least! There were 6 auctions spread over a week, with the total sales coming to a whopping £39,936,046!

Before the big sell-off, however, Sotheby’s put most of the items on public display for a month, and I was one of the lucky 140,000 fans who went along to check it out. I certainly couldn’t afford to bid on the auctions, so this was as close as I could ever possibly get to it all. And it was an absolutely incredible privilege – a kind of magic if you will – as Freddie had such exquisite taste and attention to detail.

I came away with some lovely souvenirs as well, including a massive album of photos that I took, a large tote bag that I bought in the shop and have made good use of since, and the beautiful limited edition hardback book I ordered.

At the time I briefly mentioned the exhibition in my 40th birthday roundup, as going to see it was one of my big treats for myself. But it was always my desire to go through the photos in my collection properly, by finding details about the items and how much they sold for, using the Sotheby’s website and the accompanying book, before sharing as much of it here on my blog as I could. So I’ve been working on it bit by bit when time allows, and I finally finished going through it all this Christmas. It’s been a truly fascinating project for me.

So to mark the 50th anniversary of Bohemian Rhapsody in late 2025, and the 10th anniversary of my blog in early 2026, it gives me great pleasure to present hundreds of my photos of items in the exhibition – each of which you can click on to enlarge – along with links to all the details on the Sotheby’s website. You can see even more items on their site that I haven’t included of course, and it’s easy to create a free account if you want to see the final sale prices.

Neither Sotheby’s nor Queen, nor anyone else connected with the auctions or Freddie, have been involved with this, I’m just a big fan. While I could have just picked a few favourite items, I wanted to do the exhibition and Freddie justice, especially as many of these pieces may never be seen in public again.

The exhibition was split into 4 main sections – Japan, Home, Crazy Little Things and On Stage – and there were 6 auctions along the same lines (plus a second Crazy auction and an Evening Sale for the most significant items). So my posts will generally reflect that as well. Within each section of the exhibition, most items were from the auction of the same name, but there were often items from the Evening Sale or the other auctions mixed in as well, because they fitted the theme.

So here’s the first part of my extensive look back at the exhibition, with an overview of what it was like to visit, and then a closer look at Freddie’s love of Japanese art and fashion. I hope you enjoy!

Contents

The Auctions & Exhibition

The auctions began on 6 September 2023, with an Evening Sale featuring 60 particularly special lots that fetched £12.2 million, as extensively reported on by Sotheby’s and the BBC, and you can still watch it in full on Youtube. The rest of the auctions were then spread out over a week, with the final sale taking place on 13 September.

All of the items had been put up for sale by Freddie’s former girlfriend and closest friend Mary Austin, who had inherited them following his untimely passing in 1991. She kept a few personal gifts and photos, but otherwise she got rid of everything else, so she could “put her affairs in order” at the age of 72. As difficult as it was for her to part with a lot of it, she felt it was better to bite the bullet and take an all or nothing approach.

And that’s fair enough, as Freddie entrusted everything to her and would have discussed what he did or didn’t want to happen to it all. Plus he had a deep respect for the auction house, once saying in an interview that “The one thing I would really miss if I actually left Britain would be Sotheby’s.”

But it is nevertheless a real shame that everything is now spread amongst private collectors, so we’ll probably never see most of it again, except for occasional pieces at future auctions or exhibitions (such as a recent exhibition that took place in Montreux). Even fellow band member Brian May expressed his sadness that the items were disappearing. There will never be an opportunity to see all of the items together in one place again like this. The Sotheby’s exhibition was a genuine once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to step as fully as it’s possible to get into Freddie’s world.

It would have been amazing if all or some of it could have gone to a museum instead, for everyone to enjoy for years to come, because the Sotheby’s exhibition demonstrated how special and popular it would be. There was such high demand that in order to get in I had to stand in a queue that was so far around the block that it almost met itself back at the entrance. I’m not even joking – the back of the queue was on the same street as the front, just a few metres away!

The Sotheby's building in Bond Street, with people queuing for the Freddie Mercury exhibition. A large thick black moustache, like Freddie's, hangs over the entrance.
The entrance to Sotheby's, with a large red flag hanging out from the building overhead, with large white text saying Freddie Mercury. There is some gold trim at the bottom of the flag.
A large black Freddie Mercury style moustache over the doorway of Sotheby's.
The reception in Sotheby's, with a huge arrangement of flowers at one end of the desk, while on the shelves at the back are copies of the book about the Freddie Mercury exhibition. One copy of the book is also on the desk, near the centre.
A large arched window, the top half of which is filled with the bottom of the regal robe worn by Freddie Mercury on tour, coloured red with gold decorations and white trim along the bottom. Below this, in the clear part of the window, is large white text simply saying The Man.

Despite being so busy though, and indeed because they knew it would be, the exhibition was extremely well organised by the Sotheby’s team. The collection took up every single viewing room across 2 floors, and there was a one-way system that meant we all got to see everything. Visitors were allowed to use their cameras as much as they liked, but staff also gently ensured that nobody lingered too long to read or examine things in detail, to be fair on everyone else. After all, it was easy enough to take quick snaps and then pore over them when you got home, I took well over a thousand pictures during my visit, and even after whittling them down at home I still ended up with nearly 700!

Map of the Freddie Mercury exhibition in the Lower Galleries at Sotheby's, with a dotted line marking the one way route through the various rooms.
Map of the Freddie Mercury exhibition in the Upper Galleries at Sotheby's, with a dotted line marking the one way route through the various rooms.

I also bought the special edition hardback book, which cost £50 but was well worth it, as it’s really interesting and beautifully presented. The 260-page treasure trove contains lots of wonderful images of Freddie, as well as photos and details for many of the items that went up for sale, with some pictured in Garden Lodge itself so you can see how they looked in their home environment. There are also interesting essays by experts from Sotheby’s and elsewhere, interviews with people who worked closely with Freddie like Peter Freestone and Diana Moseley, and quotes by Freddie himself.

The cover of the book accompanying the Freddie Mercury exhibition at Sotheby's, entitled Freddie Mercury, A World Of His Own. It shows Freddie posing on stage in white trousers and a bare chest, with a large red cape draped over his shoulders and a crown on his head, punching the air triumphantly. The stage is full of colourful lights behind him, and Brian May can be seen playing the guitar in the background.
Quote by Freddie Mercury that says I like to be surrounded by splendid things.
Double-page spread from the book for the Freddie Mercury exhibition at Sotheby's, showing Freddie on stage at Wembley from behind, as he leans back with his legs astride.
Double-page spread from the book for the Freddie Mercury exhibition at Sotheby's. On the right page is a black and white photo of Freddie, all dressed in white, leaning back as he sings into his microphone on stage. On the left page, in large white lettering on a black background, is a quote from Freddie that says I love the fact that I can make people happy, in any form Even if it's just an hour of their lives, if I can make them feel lucky or make them feel good, or bring a smile to a sour face, that, to me, is worthwhile.
A double-page collage of photos of Freddie Mercury with his beloved cats, from the inside cover of the book for his exhibition at Sotheby's.
Double-page spread, from the book accompanying the Freddie Mercury exhibition at Sotheby's. This section of the book is entitled Behind The Green Door, with text about Freddie's life at Garden Lodge on one page, and a picture of the garden on the other page.

In Love With Japan

Freddie had a deep love of Japan ever since setting foot there during Queen’s Sheer Heart Attack tour in 1975, in part because the fans were exceptionally polite and made them feel very welcome, and also because of the nation’s art and culture. So he collected lots of beautiful artworks, clothing, furniture, trinkets, etc over the years, and gained a thorough knowledge of the country. He even had a dedicated Japanese Room at Garden Lodge to display his collection, which people could only enter with express permission. And he paid tribute to the country with his song La Japonaise on the Barcelona album with Montserrat Caballé.

Brian May was also inspired to write Teo Torriatte (Let Us Cling Together) for the Queen album A Day At The Races, which includes a couple of choruses sung by Freddie entirely in Japanese, and it was hugely popular whenever they performed it during concerts over there. So Japan clearly struck a chord with the band, quite literally.

The auction In Love With Japan that focused on this side of Freddie’s life generated total sales of £2,624,836! However, there were also some Japanese items in the other auctions and elsewhere in the galleries. So I’ve included some of those in this post as well where appropriate, to keep as many of the Japanese objects together as possible. But there will still be some items from the country that appear in later posts too.

Woodblock Prints

Freddie clearly loved his woodblock prints, as there were lots of them adorning the walls in the exhibition. Most were sold in the Japan auction, but a few were in the first Crazy Little Things auction.

I remember going to see the Hokusai display at the British Museum back in 2017, where we had a handling session to understand how that style of art was produced, and being fascinated by how intricately detailed it is. The extremely fine and precise techniques are also discussed in the Sotheby’s book. So I’m not surprised that Freddie became quite obsessed with it. Hokusai wasn’t featured in his collection, but there were really nice pieces by lots of other people.

Freddie seemed to be particularly struck by artists from the Edo Period (1603-1868), especially the artists responsible for the examples shown below, who were well represented in the photos I came away with:

Japanese woodblock print by Kitagawa Utamaro called Goldfish. A mother has fallen asleep, her head resting on a box. Meanwhile her young son has uprooted a plant from a goldfish bowl and has tipped up the bowl causing water and fish to cascade over the floor.
2 Japanese woodblock prints by Isoda Koryusai. The first, in a regular portrait frame, shows a mother sitting on a veranda while her son plays with a branch. Snow has fallen and a young woman beside them breaks icicles from the eves with a stick.
Below it is a very tall and thin artwork, in which the kamuro, or attendant for a courtesan, holds aloft a puppet modelled on popular kabuki figure Sukeroku, referred to as the Flower of Edo for his heroic exploits and bravado.
Japanese woodblock print by Suzuki Harunobu. A young woman in a room adjusts her hair using two mirrors, whilst her lover attempts to tickle her foot from behind a sliding door (shoji) with a stick. A cat appears about to pounce, excited by the movement of the stick.
Japanese woodblock print by Suzuki Harunobu. On a cold evening in late autumn or early winter, a young courtesan dressed in a kimono with a design of snow-covered plum branches kneels beside a brazier whilst writing on a poem slip (called a tanzaku). Her client observes whilst reclining under winter robes. A tethered pet monkey sits near the brazier eating a fruit and further winter robes hang on a kimono stand (or iko) behind them.
Two Japanese woodblock prints by Kitagawa Utamaro. The first shows a couple sitting on a bamboo bench. The woman has her hand on the man's arm as he reaches inside her open robe to touch her right breast. In the other picture, A mother tenderly nurses her child while sitting in front of a small black lacquered mirror on a stand. Their eyes appear to meet in familial affection as the healthy infant suckles among the falling pleats of his mother’s open robes.
Japanese woodblock print by Kikugawa Eizan and Utagawa Kunisada. A lady dressed in a full length robe covered in lots of small white flowers reads a letter under the light of a lantern, while holding a small tissue in her mouth.
Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige, which shows people working on a field in the rain. A mountain looms high over the trees in the background.
Four Japanese woodblock prints by Utagawa Kunisada showing actors in various outfits and poses, including one in the snow and one wearing a black robe while holding a sheathed sword,
Three Japanese woodblock prints showing courtesan ladies in colourful kimonos and roads, on a wall behind three large white vases that are decorated with colourful outdoor scenes of birds and flowers.

And Freddie also liked artists from later years as well, right through to the Showa period (1926-1989), including those in the examples below:

2 woodblock prints of Japanese women. On the left,
a young woman is about to apply oshiroi, a powder foundation associated with geisha and their apprentices. She sits before an unfurled bamboo blind, her gaze reserved and vague. The woman on the right, meanwhile, has a light blue cloth with a dark blue pattern of flowers on a stem draped over her right shoulder, covering her right breast, while her left breast remains exposed.
Woodblock print painting of a young Japanese woman wearing a red kimono patterned in white with stylised maple leaves.
Woodblock print that depicts a gracefully dressed young woman walking in the rain under the shelter of a waxed paper umbrella.
Woodblock print depicting a Japanese lady sitting on the floor, leaning her elbows on her bent-up knees and resting her chin on her interlocked hands. She looks thoughtful, while snow can be seen falling through the window behind her.
2 Japanese woodblock prints by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, showing a refined lady wearing cream and red robes, and a geisha lady dressed in a light blue robe.
Two Japanese woodblock prints depicting birds perched on branches and stems amongst flowers and foliage.
Four Japanese woodblock prints depicting birds perched on branches and stems amongst flowers and foliage.

Clothing

One of the most striking items when first entering the Japan gallery was a brightly coloured kimono, which looked stunning and sold for £27,940.

The front of a brightly coloured Japanese kimono. The thick long-sleeved outer robe is decorated in stencil dye with branches of blossoming plum, stalks of bamboo and pine, interspersed with scattered fan-shaped images depicting ox-carts, peonies, pine, cranes in flight, chrysanthemums and irises.
The back of a vibrantly coloured Japanese kimono. The thick long-sleeved robe is decorated in stencil dye with branches of blossoming plum, stalks of bamboo and pine interspersed with scattered fan-shaped images depicting ox-carts, peonies, pine, cranes in flight, chrysanthemums and irises.

There were lots of other kimonos later in the exhibition as well, some of which were displayed on the ceiling rack shown below, and I’ve been able to identify most of them as follows.

All of these kimonos are from the Showa period in the 20th century, with a few estimated to be from the 1960s & 70s. Also note that a furisode is a long-sleeved kimono designed for a woman.

A selection of colourful kimonos on a metal rack hung from the ceiling.
A white board on the Freddie Mercury timeline in Sotheby's. Alongside a close-up of white seashells on a red kimono is text that reads 1975 - Kimonos, Japan. Freddie fell in love with Japan during his first visit in 1975, and a passion for all things Japanese would enthral him for the rest of his life. On their first trip to the country, the band acknowledged their rapturous reception by dressing in kimonos during the final show of the tour, at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan. A collection of exquisite kimonos, collected over the years, occupied pride of place in the Japanese Room at Garden Lodge, during the 1980s.
Freddie Mercury singing on stage while wearing a red kimono with a white pattern of stylised fans.

The Japan gallery also contained this lovely multi-coloured jacket, which sold for £63,500. While not Japanese itself – it’s actually described as having a “Hungarian flame weave” – it was worn by Freddie during Queen’s first trip to Japan in April and May 1975, and the big photo of him wearing it is from Nagoya Castle on April 22nd. Then later that year he wore it in November, when Queen signed a publishing deal with EMI Music. So it has a lot of significance attached to it.

A loose-fitting brightly multi-coloured jacket with a weaved pattern, patch pockets at the hips and a matching self-tie belt. Behind the jacket is a large photo of Freddie Mercury wearing it in Japan.
A loose-fitting brightly multi-coloured jacket with a weaved pattern, patch pockets at the hips and a matching self-tie belt.

Conclusion

And that’s where I’ll leave it for this first part, as I’m going to divide each themed section into a couple of posts to stop them taking too long to load or becoming overwhelming to look through. But I think the prints and the clothing are all really beautiful, and I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at them too.

In my next post we’ll take a look at many of the other Japanese items that were on display, including furniture, vases, tea sets and much more. So I’ll see you for that very soon!

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Author: Glen

Love London, love a laugh, love life. Visually impaired blogger, culture vulture & accessibility advocate, with aniridia & nystagmus, posting about my experiences & adventures.