Freddie Mercury’s Yamaha grand piano sold for £1,742,000 at Sotheby’s last evening. Though slightly below estimate it was a record for a composers piano. He used it to compose some of Queen’s greatest hits. An original 15-page manuscript for their epic hit Bohemian Rhapsody, with the working title “Mongolian Rhapsody” and which reveals in its notes the different directions Mercury saw the track going in, was sold for £1.3 million. The first night of the Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own auction series saw bidders from 61 countries drive 93% of lots over their estimate, with Bohemian Rhapsody lyrics and Freddie’s Yamaha piano leading the sale. Sales on the opening night brought in £12.2 million in a white glove auction where every one of nearly 60 lots sold. A month long exhibition at Sotheby’s in advance of the sales drew nearly 140,000 visitors.
The second day of the sale on September 7 brought in £9.4 million.
Freddie Mercury’s silver moustache comb, Tiffany & Co., late 20th century. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £152,400
Freddie Mercury’s silver moustache comb has caught the imagination of the public and is a surprise hit of the series of sales at Sotheby’s in London and online due to get underway next week. Estimated at £400-£600 the current bid stands at £26,000. The London exhibition at Sotheby’s, Freddie Mercury, A World of his Own, has already drawn 40,000 visitors. It runs until September 5, the day before the live auctions begin.
An Irish white glazed figure of a seated cat, Belleek, 1930s
This 1930’s Belleek cat is one of a number of Irish lots in the online sales of the Freddie Mercury collection now ongoing at Sotheby’s. The cat is lot 1501 in the Freddie Mercury, a World of His Own sale, Crazy Little Things, which runs until September 11. The white glazed cat is estimated at £50-£60 but such is the popularity of the sale that it will make a lot more. Lot 1587 in the same sale is a large group of mixed European linen damask and cotton. It comprises various large damask linen cloths some with matching napkins, other white work embroidered and pulled-work table cloths, napkins and various other small groups of napkins, tape lace place mats, together with two new unused Irish ‘Fingal’ linen double damask cloths, ‘Celtic’ and ‘Chrysanthemum’ designs, a box of six new ‘Chrysanthemum’ design napkins and a group of 28 new ‘Artraco’ white spotted napkins. The estimate is £400-£600 but again these will sell for a lot more.
In the live At Home sale in London on September 8 is a c1760 George III giltwood mirror described as possibly Irish. The estimate is £2,000-£3,000.
Handwritten manuscript working lyrics to We are the Champions. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR £317,500
Freddie Mercury’s baby grand, the matched wedding rings of Bogie and Bacall, a first edition of The Great Gatsby from the collection of Charlie Watts and Sir Roger Moore’s Lamborghini skis are among an extraordinary collection of celebrity stuff soon to come up at blockbuster sales in London and Hollywood. Collectibles like these are big business. With fans everywhere and global auction access online the business is growing exponentially.
A c1905 Art Nouveau glass vase lamp from the collection of Freddie Mercury. UPDATE: THIS MADE £22,860
Right now every inch of Sotheby’s 16,000 gallery space at New Bond St. in London is given over to a free exhibition of the world of Freddie Mercury in advance of three auctions on September 6, 7 and 8. Online Mercury sales already underway will run to September 11, 12 and 13. On offer are costumes, hand written lyrics, drawings, furniture, decorative and fine art that were part of his life at his London home, Garden Lodge in Kensington.The centre piece of the exhibition is his treasured Yamaha G2 Baby Grand. More than a decade of hits, from Bohemian Rhapsody to Barcelona, were composed on this treasured piano. Always kept in pristine condition it is estimated at £2 million – £3 million. There are handwritten working lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody, Don’t Stop Me Now and Somebody to Love, costumes relating to promotional videos including a two piece stage outfit comprising catsuit and bolero of ivory satin with winged wrists and lower legs inspired by the God Mercury.
Henri Matisse – Masque Blanc sur Fond Noir from the collection of Freddie Mercury. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £30,480
Freddie Mercury was a discriminating collector who loved going to auctions. In 1980 he acquired Garden Lodge, a Georgian style brick villa, and set about creating a home that was both grand and intimate, richly furnished and entirely of his own making. The auction will include art by Matisse, James Tissot, Picasso and Utagawa Hiroshige, Victorian paintings and works on paper, the finest examples of the glass makers art, exceptional fabrics and fine works collected on trips to Japan. All are on view at Sotheby’s in an exhibition that will close on September 5, the day that would have been Freddie Mercury’s 77th birthday.
The matching 14 carat gold wedding rings exchanged by Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in May 1945 at Julien’s. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $190,500
Iconic objects from some of Hollywood’s greatest legends will come up at a sale by Turner Classic Movies and Julien’s Auctions on September 6, 7 and 8. There is everything from dresses worn by Princess Diana and Audrey Hepburn to a slave costume worn by Princess Leia in Star Wars, Captain Kirk’s Star Fleet command jacket and the 1945 wedding rings of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. James Bond, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Back to the Future and Batman will all feature in a sale celebrating 100 years of Warner Brothers.
A library of First Edition classics and landmarks from the world of jazz will come up at Christie’s sale of the collection of Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts (1941-2021). The sale is led by a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby inscribed by the author to the original Gatsby of the story. There are iconic works of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle alongside the best of English and American literature of the 20th century. Charlie Watts: Gentleman, Collector, Rolling Stone will take place in London on September 28. An online sale will run from September 15-29. Meantime Bonhams will offer 180 lots from the personal collection of Bond actor and UNICEF ambassador Sir Roger Moore (1927-2017) in London on October 4. This marks the 50th anniversary year of his first appearance as 007. There is Bond memorabilia like dinner suits and jackets, collectibles like a Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque and personal items like silk ties and cravats along with a pair of his Lamborghini skis.
The doors to the full and fascinating world of Fredde Mercury open today at Sotheby’s in London. Every inch of Sotheby’s 16,000 square foot gallery space in New Bond Street has been given over to the vast array of costumes, hand-written lyrics, drawings, furniture, and decorative and fine art that were so much a part of Mercury’s life and with which he lived in his beautiful London home, Garden Lodge. At the heart of the exhibition will be the piano pictured here – revealed today for the first time – that was deeply precious to Mercury and a vital element in the creation of his greatest compositions: his treasured Yamaha G2 Baby Grand Piano, estimated at £2-3 million. On it he composed over a decade of hits, from Bohemian Rhapsody to Barcelona.
By 1975, the trusty old upright piano on which Freddie had composed the hits on Queen’s first three albums was no longer equal to his ever more panoramic musical ambitions. With the financial backing of music mogul Don Arden – who was unsuccessfully attempting to woo Queen to his management table – Freddie set out to find the perfect piano, with a sound that resonated with his evolving musical ambitions. After an intensive search lasting many weeks, he finally found what he was looking for: a rare baby grand with an easy keyboard action, an elegant look, and a particularly clean and clear sound, made by the Japanese manufacturer Yamaha, who had only recently started importing their instruments to England. The piano would just about fit into the small apartment he was sharing at the time with Mary Austin. As she recalls, ‘Freddie treated the Yamaha with absolute respect. He considered it to be more than an instrument, it was an extension of himself, his vehicle of creativity. He would never smoke at the piano or rest a glass on top of it and would ensure nobody else did either. The piano was always pristine.’
The new piano very soon proved its worth. In the months after its arrival, he used it to develop and hone the epic track Bohemian Rhapsody, released towards the end of that year. The London exhibition continues until September 5. On September 6, 7 and 8 Sotheby’s will hold three auctions devoted to the Freddie Mercury Collection. Meantime three online Freddie Mercury auctions running to September 11, 12 and 13 will get underway on August 11.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 26, 2023)
Judith Lewis and Thomas Frye Conversation piece of the Hon. Herbert Hickman Windsor, dressed in Hussars’ uniform with his sister Charlotte Jane, later Countess of Bute, with their dog and other pet animals in a landscape. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This painting, one of only three known signed works by the Irish female artist Judith Lewis, comes up at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th century paintings day sale in London on July 6. Lot 139 is estimated at £24,000-32,000. Judith Lewis was sister of Stephen Slaughter, a Dublin-based portrait painter, and later wife of another Dublin artist, John Lewis, who was the first scene-painter to be permanently employed at the Smock Alley Theatre.
This work depicts the Hon. Herbert Hickman-Windsor in a hussar’s uniform, his trousers decorated with Irish Harps, alongside his sister Charlotte Jane, who would later become the Countess of Bute, and from whose husband’s family this picture has descended. Both sitters were the children of Herbert Windsor, 2nd Viscount Windsor, a British landowner and Tory politician. They are depicted in an arcadian landscape, surrounded by a dog, a chipmunk and a variety of exotic birds. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, exotic animals were considered the ultimate extravagance and display of wealth as they were imported from far away countries. When this painting was with Philip Mould the attribution of the landscape to Judith Lewis and the figures to Thomas Frye was endorsed by Dr Michael Wynne.
Canova’s bust of Helen of Troy at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £3,549,000
FROM Helen of Troy and Aphrodite to Mozart and a suite of Louis XIV silver mounted furniture the London summer sales season will deliver some remarkable masterworks and classical pieces to the global market in the coming week. On the market for the first time ever is a Bust of Helen by Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Given by Canova to Robert, Viscount Castlereagh (later the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry) in recognition of his efforts to return works of art to Italy at the end of the Napoleonic Wars it will be a highlight at Christie’s Old Masters sale on July 6. Appreciation of Castlereagh, by Canova or anyone else, is out of the ordinary. The Marquess, who committed suicide in 1822, is not remembered kindly in Ireland as a result of the suppression of the 1798 Rebellion and the promotion of the Act of Union, or in England, where he supported repressive measures that linked him in public opinion to the Peterloo Massacre. Inspired by that massacre Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy begins: “I met murder on the way, he had a mask like Castlereagh…
A 2nd century AD Roman head of the Capitoline Aphrodite on Italian polychrome 17th century stone draped shoulders at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £889,000
A bust of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love at Sotheby’s sale of Master Sculpture from Four Millennia on July 4 is unusual in that the head, neck and chest are all original. It was made in the Roman Empire about the 2nd century AD. The bust rests on Italian polychrome stone draped shoulders which date to the 17th century. Lifesize Roman representations of Aphrodite carved out of dark stone are extremely rare. The only other known example is at the Vatican.
A letter in German signed by Mozart’s at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A dramatic 1782 letter by a 26 year old Mozart to his close friend Baroness von Waldstatten declares that he will need to get married within two days to save his future wife the scandal of being dragged out of his house by the police. Constanze was known to be cohabiting under the same roof in Vienna as Mozart. This prompted her mother Cacila Weber to send in the police to reclaim her daughter and save her reputation. The only solution Mozart could come up with was to marry her the same day or the next and marry they did, on August 4, 1782. It comes up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale on Thursday. A c1670 suite of Louis XIV furniture comprising a table and a pair of torcheres at Sotheby’s Treasures sale next Wednesday is thought likely to be the only surviving examples of the silver furnishings produced in the second half of the 17th century by the silversmiths of the Louvre and Gobelins workshops. The ensemble displayed in the King’s Grand Appartement at Versaille comprised 20 tons of solid silver. In 1689-90 Louis XIV decreed all silver should be sent to the Royal Mint to fund France’s fight in the Nine Years War. Nearly all but the most modest items or those that had already left France were melted down.
Alabaster portrait of Charles V at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
A carved alabaster portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), the most famous and celebrated Hapsburg ruler of Europe, demonstrates idiosyncrasies like the huge Hapsburg underbite. Lifetime portraits of Charles V in private hands are rare, most exist in museums. The sales next week will offer a trove of numerous museum quality works from paintings and drawings by Old Masters to furniture, decorative objects, books, manuscripts and letters.
Barcelona Red Mirror by Sean Scully made £482,600 at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary day auction in London today. Executed on two vertical canvases it epitomises Scully’s hallmark configuration of stripes. Spanning bold alternating blocks of crimson and deep mahogany on the left panel and coal black and lilac on the left the present work creates a ruptured duality, a certain asymmetrical union. Signed and dated 04 on the reverse it brings to mind the artist’s early double canvases, at the same time paying homage to Barcelona, where Scully has had a studio since 1994.
Lady with a Fan – the last portrait Austrian artist Gustav Klimt painted
There was a new auction record for a painting sold in Europe at Sotheby’s in London tonight when Klimt’s last portrait – Lady with a Fan – soared past its estimate of £65 million to sell for £85.3 million. After a four way bidding war it went to a collector in Hong Kong. This is the second highest price for a portrait ever at auction.
The painting, described as “a masterpiece by an artist at the height of his powers”, has strong Asian influences and is part of the Japonisme trend, which refers to the influence of Japanese art and design among Western European artists.
It also features several Chinese motifs including the phoenix, a symbol of immortality and rebirth, and lotus blossoms that signify love.
Helena Newman, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe and worldwide head of impressionist and modern art, said: “Dame mit Fächer is the last portrait Gustav Klimt created before his untimely death, when still in his artistic prime and producing some of his most accomplished and experimental works.
“Many of those works, certainly the portraits for which he is best known, were commissions. This, though, is something completely different – a technical tour de force, full of boundary-pushing experimentation, as well as a heartfelt ode to absolute beauty.”
Previous highest prices achieved in Europe were:
£65m / $104.3m – Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man (Sotheby’s London, February 2010) – record for any work of art sold at auction in Europe £40.9m / $80.4m – Claude Monet, Le basin aux nymphéas – (Christie’s London, June 2008) – record for any painting sold at auction in Europe £59.4m / $79.8m – René Magritte, L’empire des lumières (Sotheby’s London, March 2022) £49.5m / $76.7m – Rubens, The Massacre of the Innocents (Sotheby’s London, July 2002)
(See post on antiqesandartireland.com for June 24, 2023)
Sir William Beechey, R.A. Portrait of Mrs Dorothy Jordan (1761–1816) as Rosalind in Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,860
Sir William Beechey’s famous and much illustrated portrait of the great Irish actress, Dorothy Jordan, mistress of King William IV comes up at Sotheby’s in London next week. She was the mother of ten illegitimate children by him, all of whom took the surname FitzClarence. Its significance was recognised by her bibiographer Claire Tomalin who used the painting on the front cover of her definitive publication on Mrs Jordan in 1994. Born the daughter of Irish and Welsh emigres in London Dorothy Phillips (her unmarried name) started off her professional life on the stage in Dublin. In 1790 she attracted the eye of the young Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence and later William IV, who gave her an annuity of £1,200 and enough provisions for her accompanying family. She was subsequently given the use of Bushy House, a residence of the Duke in Bushy Park, where she became mother of his ten offspring. Rising debts and the search for a society marriage prompted William to call-off the affair, and Jordan was to receive £4,400 in a settlement drawn up shortly after their parting in 1811. Their eldest son George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster (1794–1842) would have been King rather than Queen Victoria but for his illegitimacy. The painting is lot 142 at Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th century day auction in London on July 6 with an estimate of £20,000-£30,000.
