Freddie Auction and Sotheby's book discussion

Finally, some sense is spoken.

I think it probably just means you can't copy or reproduce items, such as the notebooks, and sell copies commercially. But I'm not sure how that would be enforceable once someone has purchased the items.

Use a photograph as an example.

If you TOOK the photograph, you own the copyright, unless you choose to transfer it to someone else .

If you have possession of a print, you do not own the copyright.

If you sell a print, for the avoidance of doubt, you make clear whether or not the copyright is also being sold.

yes, you're right. but she is a Trustee of two of Freddie's companies and she (as the main beneficiary of his estate) receives residual royalties from record sales. She is supposedly due to receive around £30m for royalties from the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

Freddie (after financial gifts to Freestone, Hutton etc) divided the rest of his estate 50% to Mary and 50% to his parents and sister (equally). When his parents died Mary's share was reported to have increased to 75%.

So my point about her receiving copies of "new" Queen releases is still valid, and again you're correct in assuming "why would anyone be surprised that Mary Austin has been receiving copies of new Queen-related releases over the years?" - but I suppose, the concept of being a beneficiary of an ongoing business concern, may escape some folk's grasp?

All correct.

But using the Sotheby's photos as another example, we don't know to what extent anyone has gone to copyright any of the images. Assuming this has been done, legally speaking, copyright owners can claim that potential royalties have been lost even from including them in a YouTube video, never mind selling them for profit.

Whether or not they'd actually follow through on such a claim is another story, as the money they'd claim as potential lost royalties is almost certainly much less than it would cost them to invoke the claim.

I ordered the book from Hatchards on the 14th when it was again showing as 'IN Stock' after being Sold Out for a week or so. It went back to 'Sold Out' shortly after. Got the email just now, (8 days later) to say it had shipped. Can't help thinking this book has been a far bigger success than they expected and maybe they don't have the staff to deal with it all.

It is currently available on the Hatchards site for 'Pre Order' if anyone else wants to buy it. Presumably that means they are printing more. Originally it said a Strictly Limited Edition but they seem to be stretching that description somewhat.

Be interested to see if mine is a first print they found after fulfilling all the original orders or a second printing. I'm assuming the latter but the fact that they now have a Pre Order option makes me wonder.

(Be really good if there was an easy way to identify first printings of records the way you usually can with books)

As I went to post this I thought, someone's going to ask how you identify books... so here's a link to a decent blog post about it.  How to spot a First Edition  

I got my copy at Sotheby's last week and they have mountains of them.  Interestingly there is no copyright / edition info in the front of the book as you'd normally expect.  I can't find anything that identifies edition  /print run anywhere.

*edit* Right at the back it states "First published in Great Britain in 2023 by Sotheby's..."

Welcome to the forum. 


I ordered the book from Hatchards last week, having seen it on Amazon for more than double the price, and the status was 'Pre Order', which is a bit odd if there's loads in stock, but I guess the ones at the Exhibition are strictly for sale at the event. 

Ri went to the exhibit and kindly shared with me a photo they took of the track list. Thank you, Ri!

Although it looks like there was maybe another song between "Try Again" and "My Life Has Been Saved," Ri's photo shows that there isn't. Also, the two sheets of paper under the notebook have been shifted a bit, so now you can see that the track list in red is numbered clearly from 1 to 20, and a bit more of the sheet with blue ink is visible. However, with the words in blue that are visible down the sheet (Heart, to Me, Again, Life, Feel) it looks like it's another track list of many of the same songs. Overture is the fourth last song, though, with Feel the Force as the final track on this list.

This. Amazing how much we can learn about early Queen from a few pictures for an auction, I love it!

Welcome LT!

I'm in the US so I won't see the exhibition at Sotheby's but I'm seeing through all of the FB posts as others view the treasures.  

Like you, I put in a few bids early on.  I only bid on one item at a time, but I experienced the same panic you did! What if I win???  Yikes!!  The first item I bid on was the little Lalique fish.  That bid now stands at 19,000 which is absurd.  My guess is that a group of people went in on that and will share the fish.  The mild panic I had that I might actually win a bid grew exponentially when it occurred to me that  I was bidding in British pounds and that my actual bid was higher in dollar amounts but that didn't stop me.  I only bid on one item at a time and for about a week I "owned" one of Freddie's boxes.  Eventually I was outbid and I called a halt to my madness.  I expect there will be a flurry of last minute bids as the auction nears the end but I will only be watching. 

I do hope to watch the live auction because I want to see what those items go for and I have never been to an auction and would like to view the process.

Lord Fickle, I think you will enjoy the book.  I've had it for a while but only started to read it yesterday.  We always knew Freddie collected beautiful things, but reading the details of his collection showed me yet another layer of the man.  He must have been fascinating to talk to as he shared his knowledge of his possessions.  BTW, the actual quality of the book is excellent.  

Yes, and it also occurred to me that I might have to insure the package.  It was fun to dream!

I was really tempted by lot 759, until it went storming past the estimate.

The degree of "accuracy" of the estimate ranges makes me wonder if it's more about marketing - make people think that more things are achievable....

I guess some of the 'extra' titles could have formed parts of the finished songs? The Miracle (track) has three distinct sections, and IWIA has the fast middle bit which sounds from the Disc 2 version that it was a separate part. We also know Breakthru was initially two songs.