05 August 2023 , 16:15
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A silver moustache comb that cost Freddie Mercury £90 could rake in £50,000 at auction.
It is one of more than 1,400 of his belongings going under the hammer at a Sotheby’s sale next month. The Queen frontman’s former live-in PA Peter Freestone predicts fans will go wild for items like the ’tache comb because the singer still exerts a kind of magic more than 30 years after his death.
Sotheby’s estimate is £400 to £600. Peter said: “It cost about £90. It was from Tiffany & Co, one of their little gift things. But it could go for £50,000 because they will be paying for the DNA of Freddie.”
Freddie is pictured with Peter Freestone, who was his personal assistant from 1979 until the day he died (Unknown)Peter, 68, lived with Freddie for 12 years in Kensington, west London, until his death from Aids in 1991. He said Freddie would secretly send him to auctions armed with blank cheques because prices would shoot up if bidders spotted the superstar.
Peter said: “If Freddie was in the room, the prices would go to stupid money. On the morning of the sale I’d give him his cheque book, he would put his signature on it, and I’d go off to the auction.
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“I was very lucky most of the time and would get what he wanted. He loved art, crystal vases, furniture and Japanese things.” Freddie’s artworks, outfits and writings were left frozen in time in his mansion for more than 30 years.
But the contents were offered up for auction by his longtime confidante Mary Austin, who inherited his estate, on September 11 and 12.
They include the bejewelled crown and cloak worn in his final stage appearance in 1986 that are expected to fetch as much as £80,000. Peter says his most prized possession was a Matisse sketch copy drawn and given to him by Freddie.
The tiny moustache comb, which Freddie bought from Tiffany & Co, is up for sale (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)He said: “We were looking through a catalogue of art one afternoon and there was this sketch of a Matisse. He looked at it and said, ‘Give me some paper and a marker’ and within 30 seconds he had made an exact copy.
"He said, ‘Now look... it says it is £12,000. Do you think this is something worth £12,000?’ He just put my initials on it and signed and said, ‘Well, maybe one day.’ I have still got it and that will not be going up for auction. It is amazing how close it is to the original.”
Peter, whose autobiography is called Right Place Right Time, added that Freddie wouldn’t want to be around today because he didn’t like dinosaur rockers.
He said: “He hated the idea of old men running around the stage. That was Freddie. When the Rolling Stones were going back out or The Who was going back out he was like, ‘Ha, ha, the dinosaurs are out again’.”