Popular Culture
Popular Culture
Freddie Mercury
A Jean-Paul Gaultier Studded Black Leather Jacket, Stage-Worn By Freddie Mercury At The Dominion Theatre, London, 14th April 1988
Lot Closed
September 12, 01:44 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The cropped black leather biker jacket from the Jean Paul Gaultier 1987/88 ‘Rock Stars’ collection, the chest with two outside zipped pockets and one pocket with button fastener, the jacket bearing epaulettes to the shoulders each with a white metal skull fastener, zipped inside with black lining with red threading in a lattice pattern, each sleeve with zipped pocket and elasticated sleeve cuffs with zipper, waist with black leather belt and white metal fastening buckle. Interior labels reading ‘Jean Paul GAULITER / CUIR’ and ‘Made in Italy’, label to inside right pocket reading ‘100% GENUINE LEATHER’.
Stage-Worn By Freddie Mercury for his final live singing performance, at the Dominion Theatre, London, 14th April 1988.
Accompanied by a file of letters and documentation concerning the provenance, including:
A letter from AIDSTakeCare International on letterheaded paper.
A letter from the daughter of actress Barbara Valentin (who had been gifted the jacket by Freddie), on letterheaded paper.
Dimensions
No size label present, chest approx. 34in
Provenance
Gifted by Freddie Mercury to his friend Barbara Valentin, an actress who also featured in the 1984 music video for the Queen song 'It's A Hard Life'.
Donated by Barbara Valentin to the AIDSTakeCare Foundation Trust.
Sold by AIDSTakeCare and AOL through eBay, December 2001, to raise funds and the Little Angels Aids Orphanage in South Africa.
Acquired at the above sale by the current owner.
Image Captions
[Four images] Photographer Unknown (Flickr/Public Domain). Freddie Mercury wearing the present Lot on-stage at London’s Dominion Theatre, 14th April 1988.
The present jacket is a highly important piece in the history of Freddie Mercury and his sparkling career: It was stage-worn for his final performance singing live in concert, which took place at London's Dominion Theatre, 14th April 1988. Although he did appear on stage later that year with Montserrat Caballé for 'Barcelona', that performance was lip-synced. It was in London that Freddie participated in a special charity performance of Dave Clark's original musical, 'Time', together with Cliff Richard who had originated the lead role. In addition to duetting on 'Born To Rock n' Roll' and 'It's In Every One Of Us', Freddie also sang live the song 'In My Defence'. Back in 1986, Freddie had recorded 'In My Defence' and the title track for the 'Time' concept album, which also featured Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Murray Head, and Julian Lennon, in addition to narration from Sir Laurence Olivier. 'In My Defence' was eventually released under Freddie's name posthumously, breaking into the Top 10 in the UK singles charts in November 1992.
A small number of images are known showing Freddie and Cliff Richard, but only bootleg audio survives of what has since become a highly important appearance in both the career of Freddie Mercury, and in the history of popular music and one of its most celebrated live performers.