Freddie Mercury’s World – Part 7 – The Collector

Two photos side by side. On the left is a book called Catmopolitan, with a cover designed to be a parody of Cosmopolitan magazine. Surrounding a picture of a cat are various headlines including The cat's out of the bag - he's pussy-footing around, The Tomcat - what can she see in him?, and Getting your claws into Mr Right? - Rate your erotic purrsonality. On the right are 3 paintings of Freddie Mercury by his fans. Two are head and shoulder potraits, one in black and white and one in colour. The other and much larger painting shows Freddie singing loudly into a microphone as he pumps his right fist in the air, with colourful lighting behind him.

Freddie Mercury was an avid collector of objects, who had a real eye for beauty, loved all things feline and had a great sense of humour. And that’s clearly in evidence here, as we continue looking back at my photos from the 2023 A World Of His Own exhibition that took place at Sotheby’s.

This time we’re looking at items to do with cats, clothing, books and music that he collected. Most of them are from the auctions Crazy Little Things 1 and Crazy Little Things 2, which raised £10.3 million altogether! But there are a few bits and pieces from other auctions mixed in too, just as there were some items from the Crazy auctions in my previous posts.

So there’s plenty to look through, and as before you can click on the images to enlarge them and the item names to learn more. Hope you enjoy as always!

Contents

Cats

To say that Freddie adored his cats is quite the understatement. He was absolutely besotted with them and treated them to a life of luxury. So it’s no surprise that he had a wide variety of feline figurines and other items, which are very cute.

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.

These include a nice collection of 29 cat ornaments from the 20th century that sold for £30,480.

A large and colourful collection of ornaments of cats, in a variety of sizes and designs.
A cornucopia of cat ornaments in various sizes and designs.
2 ornaments of cats, one of which is sitting with its tail curled around its body, as it looks back over its shoulder at us. The other cat figure is viewed from the back

Next, this trio of objects consists of:

A cookie jar and pottery dish, both designed to look like cats, as well as a small white glazed figurine of a cat.
Side view of a cookie jar, designed to look like a cat wearing a bow, with a flowery design on its back. This is next to a small white glazed figurine of a cat.

Then there’s this photographic print called Les Chats, a copy of a work by Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, which sold for £11,430. On the plinth below it, alongside a couple of the ornaments from the large collection mentioned above, is a durastone figure of an ancient Egyptian style cat that went for £7,620. Those ornaments are obscuring another painting called Cat Gaelach by Joan Freestone that sold for £10,795.

A photographic print of two cats. One is a black cat sitting up and looking off to the left, while the other has white, grey and pink colours, and is looking round towards us. At the top left of the painting, in large black capital letters on the white background, are the words Les Chats, which is French for cats. On a plinth below the print are 3 black figurines of cats.

Next we have a case of Japanese cat ornaments, bringing two of Freddie’s greatest loves together:

Glass case containing Japanese models of cats. At the corner nearest us are 2 cats, both seated with one paw raised, each decorated in vibrant red and blue enamels and gilt. Just behind them is a model of a cat laying down asleep, with a red ribbon around its neck.
Glass case containing Japanese models of cats. The side nearest us contains two of those ornaments, each of which has a paw raised in the air. The one on the left has an elaborate brocade collar, while the one on the right is stretching up higher with its paw as if wanting the most attention of all the ornaments in the case. It has a red silk cloth around its neck and realistic detailing on its face including whiskers.

Moving on, there’s:

Glass case containing ornaments of black cats in varying designs and sizes. The largest has red pointed ears, blue edging to its eyes, white whiskers, a small yellow nose, an even smaller red mark for its mouth, and a red scarf with colourful patterning around its neck, and it's hold a round gold object in front of it with one of its paws.
A painting of two cats. One has brown and black stripes on its back and a white chest and is sitting up attentively. The other cat is mainly white in colour except for a black spot on its back, and is laying down on the ground pawing at some long-stemmed flowers laying on the ground in front of it. Behind them are 3 large bulbous vases in varying shades of blue, a couple of which have fish designs on them.

And then finally there’s an enjoyable assortment of other bits and pieces, including:

A glass case containing three glass seated figures of cats, two porcelain seated models of cats, and a collection of 29 books about cats.
A collection of books about cats, including The Concise Encyclopedia of Cats, The Cat Empire, Understanding Your Cat, and A Book of Courtly Cats.
A porcelain model of a grey cat with lots of ruffled fur laying down.
A book called Catmopolitan, with a cover designed to be a parody of Cosmopolitan magazine. Surrounding a picture of a cat are various headlines including The cat's out of the bag - he's pussy-footing around, The Tomcat - what can she see in him?, Getting your claws into Mr Right? - Rate your erotic purrsonality, A tale of two kitties - a cat can change her spots, Catatonic catastrophe - Catnip the drug problem, Jackie Collars sharpens her claws in her new novel Hollywood Housecats, Cat Houses - sleep with the best, and Cat Naps - the paws that refreshes.

Clothing

While Freddie was widely known for his impressive costumes on stage and in his music videos (which we’ll come to in a later post), he had a lot of other great fashion items in his extensive wardrobe as well.

For example, in this set of images you can see:

A white Hawaiian shirt printed with sailing boats and palm trees beneath a cloudy sky, in yellow, red, orange and brown colours.
A white Hawaiian shirt printed with images of people engaging in various outdoor activities, interspersed with Native American phrases such as Indian tepee, Tom-tom, Buffalo and Chippewa drummers.
A black cotton pullover. The front has a large white diamond shape on it, inside which are colour photographic reproductions of two cats.
A white T-shirt printed with a row of five cats in black and white across the centre, with their backs and tails towards us.
A white T-shirt printed with an image of a black cat smoking a cigarette, inside a red circle with a red diagonal line through it, like a no smoking sign. Along the diagonal line, white text says My No Smoking Shirt, while more white text on the bottom of the circle says Not Couture. To the right of the circle is a small image of a cigarette with black text above it saying Produced by Schmalor.
A white T-shirt with black printing that shows a photographic reproduction of a naked woman, who has her mouth open while cupping her breasts and crossing her legs. Next to her are the words Fuck Dancing, Let’s Fuck in big letters.

Then in this next group of images, which show a mixture of styles and include some nicely designed tour items, you can see:

Metallic silver satin bomber jacket for Queen's Jazz Tour 1978, a green satin bomber jacket with brown imitation fur collar for Queen's South America and Japan Tour 1981, a white T-shirt screen-printed with multi-coloured images of Andy Warhol’s self-portrait making up a single head portrait of Warhol, and a red and white stripe cap-sleeved T-shirt with crown motif embroidered in gold, green and black thread to front, and in green the text ‘By Appointment To The Queen’.
A black ‘wet-look’ nylon bomber jacket for Queen's The Game tour in the USA, a white T-shirt printed in bright colours with an image of two 1950s teenagers jiving and the text ‘Swing Is Back’, a white cotton tour t-shirt with navy trim to collar and sleeves, and navy lettering for Queen's A Night At The Opera U.S. tour 1976, and a black cotton tour t-shirt printed with red and white lettering saying ‘Queen World Tour ’78-79’ and multi-coloured designs of the Queen crest on the front.
White jersey jacket printed with Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck, a long sleeved black and white cotton t-shirt with black sleeves and trim to v-neck and hem for Queen's Jazz world tour 1978, a white cotton tour t-shirt with red trim to neck and sleeves printed with red lettering for the Queen II U.S. Spring Tour 1974, and a white ‘Polythylene’ zip-up jacket with black knitted collar and cuffs, the reverse side shown with a black and white design of three race horses galloping through a large green letter Q.
A bright yellow short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt printed with an exotic floral design in fuchsia pink, turquoise and black. A black cotton t-shirt decorated with the Superman logo in red glitter. A grey cotton tour t-shirt with black sleeves and trim to collar, printed on the front with red lettering saying ‘Queen, Status Quo & Special Guests LIVE’ and a multi-coloured cartoon character from the A Kind Of Magic album cover. And a white T-shirt printed in various colours with an image of a guitar and text saying ‘Rock N Roll’.
Turquoise vest with large arrow designs, with 3 pointing up and 3 pointing down, meeting in the centre, in black, purple and red, for Queen's 'Hot Space' tour 1982. A batwing sleeve cotton jacket with shoulder pads, printed with a black and white geometrical pattern, the back shown with a large lion’s head print in the centre. A black short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt printed with a pattern of palm trees, huts, sails and canoes in green, red and brown. And a white nylon bomber jacket with red knitted cuffs and hem and red quilted lining, with pink printed lettering saying ‘Queen World Tour 1979’.
A white padded cotton jacket applied to front, back and sleeves with cotton badges embroidered in black, red and white with various Japanese characters, symbols or themes. And a white short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt printed with a design of bright green palm trees and orange and pink vintage cars.

Books

Freddie had a huge personal library of books, many of which were on display in the bookcase shown in my second furniture post, and it’s quite fascinating to see what he liked to read. Here’s a selection.

A huge bookcase with shelves in a variety of different sizes, filling the corner of the room. It is filled with books and records. In front of the bookcase is a round table with a compact CD player and an ornate table light with a sculpture of a person on it.

These first 5 images contain collections of books on particular themes:

A collection of 17 fantasy and fairytale books, including titles about artist Richard Dadd, and books by illustrators like Edmund Dulac and C.M. Barker. Next to the books is a wooden 3D silhouette model of Freddie Mercury, standing with legs apart and one arm held in the air triumphantly.
A collection of 8 books about music, including titles about Elvis Presley, Bernie Taupin and George Gershwin.
A collection of 20 books on health and fitness, including bodybuilding, tae kwon do and yoga.
A bookshelf of auction catalogues, mostly from Sotheby's entitled Art At Auction, plus a Christie's review of the season from 1991, among others.
Auction catalogues, hardback, from Sotheby’s, Christie’s and others, 1976-1991.
Books on fine and decorative arts, including books on carpets, soft furnishings, glass art and ceramics.

The next 5 images contain a wide mixture of books, including:

And they’re accompanied by various objects:

A collection of 17 books about Hollywood and film stars, including titles about Marilyn Monroe, Greta Garbo and Rock Hudson. Next to them is a wooden bookend carved in the shape of a horse's head.
2 shelves in a bookcase. The top shelf contains 3 colourfully decorated German beer steins. The second shelf contains a collection of Beatrix Potter books, a bookend carved in the shape of a horse's head, and some other books including a dictionary of euphemisms.
2 shelves in a bookcase, mostly filled with novels on a comedy, science fiction and fantasy theme by authors like Tom Sharpe, John Le Carré and Stephen King. Next to the books on the top shelf is a small model of the Santa Maria, a ship used by Christopher Columbus.
2 shelves in a bookcase, filled with novels on a comedy, science fiction and fantasy theme by authors like Tom Sharpe, John Le Carré and Stephen King, along with a variety of other books ranging from Freud on Sexuality to 2 copies of My East End by Anita Dobson.
A bronze statuette of Freddie Mercury in his trademark pose, standing with legs apart and looking own, his right arm raised high in the air triumphantly. Alongside it are several books, including ones about Flash Gordon, royalty and wine drinking.

Music

The large bookcase also contained a vast selection of titles from Freddie’s record collection, and naturally that includes a whole array of records from Queen and his solo career, which sold for £88,900.

A selection of Queen & Freddie Mercury records from Freddie's record collection, including Queen's Platinum Collection, Absolute Greatest, the Collector's Edition of The Miracle, Queen's self-title debut album, The Game, A Night At The Odeon and The Freddie Mercury Solo Collection.
A selection of Queen & Freddie Mercury records from Freddie's record collection, alongside 3 volumes of the VHS video series called Queen The Magic Years.
A selection of Queen & Freddie Mercury records from Freddie's record collection, including A Kind Of Magic, A Night At The Opera, Greatest Hits, Queen On Air and Made In Heaven.
A selection of Queen & Freddie Mercury records from Freddie's record collection, including The Miracle, A Kind Of Magic, Greatest Hits 2, A Night At The Opera, Sheer Heart Attack, Live Killers,, Live At Wembley 86, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Plays The Queen Collection, The Queen Album by Elaine Paige, and Freddie's solo album Barcelona with Montserrat Caballé.

In terms of other artists, here’s a collection of material relating to Elton John, which went under the hammer for £16,510, with the proceeds being donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Items relating to Elton John. There are 2 Sotheby's catalogues, one of which has a silhouetted image of Elton walking away with a top hat and walking stick on the cover. And behind those is a book called Elton - It's a Little Bit Funny, which shows him performing on stage on the cover.
Items relating to Elton John. One is a book simply titled Elton John, with a picture of the star wearing a wide brimmed sunhat and big white glasses on the cover. That's overlaid with a Christie's catalogue entitled British and Irish Traditionalist and Modernist Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings and Sculpture. That booklet is accompanied by an invoice to F Mercury Esquire, 5-6 Logan Mews, London, W8 6QP, on which Freddie has written Gift for Elton. Finally, below those books are a couple of tickets for Sasson Presents: Elton John at the Fabulous Forum on Thursday August 23, 1984 at 8pm.

Next we have a very cool mirrored wall clock promoting the News Of The World album (£16,510).

A tall mirrored walk clock. At the top is the crest for the band Queen, over which are the clock hands, and there are Roman numerals for each quarter of the hour. The centre of the item has the words Queen, News Of The World. Then the bottom half shows the artwork from the album, with a huge robotic figure picking up and dropping the band members, who are tiny in comparison.

Some nice imagery comes next, with a photo of Freddie in the Radio Ga Ga music video (£25,400) and a few very cool pieces from a collection of 1980s fan art (£6,985), one of which depicts Freddie performing.

A framed black and white photo of Freddie Mercury raising his fists in the air in the Radio Ga Ga music video.
Three paintings of Freddie Mercury by his fans. Two are head and shoulder portraits, one in black and white and one in colour. The other and much larger painting shows Freddie singing loudly into a microphone as he pumps his right fist in the air, with colourful lighting behind him.

Then there are a few singles as well, with factory samples of Tie Your Mother Down & You And I (£8,255), songs which were ultimately released to the public as A and B sides on the same disc, plus a 7-inch acetate of Play The Game (also £8,255).

7-inch vinyl discs for the Queen songs You And I, Tie Your Mother Down and Play The Game. The discs for the first 2 songs include the colourful design of the band's crest from the album A Day At The Races.

There was also written material relating to their music, and a collection of notes relating to their music videos in the 80s & 90s sold for £30,480, including the notes you can see below for their Breakthru video.

Handwritten notes by Freddie Mercury for the Breakthru music video.

Conclusion

And that’s it for this part. Tomorrow we’ll continue looking through the Crazy Little Things gallery by looking at lots of actual little things, some of them very precious and beautiful, so be sure to come back for that.

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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.

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