Freddie Mercury's publicity-worn jacket and t-shirt, mid-1970s

Freddie Mercury's publicity-worn jacket and t-shirt, mid-1970s

a cropped black velvet vintage jacket printed with a pattern of gold flowerheads, fur collar, flared sleeves, the open front with art deco diamante clip fastening at waist [clip no longer working and lacking some of its original diamante], the material with three pleats either side of the front fastening, lined in cream silk, the cuffs additionally lined with black silk, labelled at the inside neck with small white label embroidered in red ‘W’; with a blue and yellow striped T-shirt, the blue stripes woven with the words ‘CUB SCOUT’ in yellow and studded with diamante, labelled ‘Cub Scouts Official’

(qty 2)

This combination was worn on numerous occasions by Freddie during the mid-1970s, including at a press call with Queen in London on 8 September 1976, when they were presented with their gold discs for their first album (1973), which had achieved gold status in the UK on 1 May: Freddie can be seen wearing this jacket and t-shirt, holding his gold BPI sales award (lot 113), and also wearing a pair of square-toed white shoes (very similar to those in lot 171).

This t-shirt was also worn with a bomber jacket (lot 176) at a reception held by Elektra Records to celebrate the release of A Night At The Opera before Queen’s first concert in Tokyo on their second tour of Japan in March 1976. This combination was also worn for the publicity photograph of Freddie used for the inner sleeve of A Day At the Races, released in December, 1976, and when Freddie received an Ivor Novello award for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (a photograph of the occasion is in lot 159 and the award itself is lot 46).

LITERATURE

Phil Sutcliffe, Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History Of The Crown Kings Of Rock, Voyageur Press, 2009, p. 94 (illus.)

SPECIAL NOTICE

This lot is being sold for private use only. No right to reproduce or otherwise commercially exploit the copyright or other intellectual property in the lots is included with the sale of lot. Queen Productions Limited and Queen Music Limited and other rights holders reserve all their rights.