Freddie Mercury's 'Mad Hatter' top hat and other hats designed by Diana Moseley, 1986

Freddie Mercury’s 'Mad Hatter' top hat and other hats designed by Diana Moseley For His silly hat themed 40th birthday party at Garden Lodge

A collection of hats and accessories comprising:

Freddie Mercury’s ‘Mad Hatter’ black top hat, the top of the hat in the form a lid which flips open to reveal a red and pink lurex penis and balls surrounded by multicoloured curled ribbons and feathers, the word ‘Bang’ hand painted in red on a piece of card edged in glitter and the number ‘40’ handmade from silver paper and card embellished with plastic diamanté, the hat band of black and silver material over card, the brim trimmed with black glittery fabric; a group of nine fancy dress party hats comprising Peter Freestone’s ‘Miss Piggy’ hat – the large pink straw hat decorated with plastic pig faces and pink net; Peter Straker’s ‘Chinese Iron Curtain’ hat – the conical hat of stiff woven straw with long raffia strands; a straw boater decorated with a blue ribbon and plastic ivy; a black plastic horse’s head hat; two black and white felt pointed hats; a blue tricorn trimmed with white down; a green felt ‘Robin Hood’ hat; and a broken straw hat; a group of four old hats, possibly used for fancy dress; three pairs of gloves comprising an old pair of brown fur gloves, and two pairs of modern padded gloves; and yellow raffia Hawaiian-style skirt with elasticated waist, labelled ‘COE’, 32 cm. long

(qty 18)

Diana Moseley, in an interview with Sotheby’s, June 2023, recalled making the hats for this occasion….”Freddie had a huge sense of humour. I remember making all the hats for his 40th birthday party in 1986, each one specifically designed for a member of the family or one of his friends, like Mary, Jim, Joe, Peter and some actor friends. There were joke ones and a trick one for Freddie which nearly broke his jaw because it had an exploding device in it. He found it hilarious. When I arrived at the house with them, it was like giving out Christmas presents. The day before, they had all been bouncing around the house setting up the party, putting hatstands in the garden, as if for the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. It was a curious sight, but so much fun.” The ‘exploding device’ referred to by Moseley is the mechanism inside the ‘Mad Hatter’ top hat [no longer working] which made the top flip open to reveal the ‘surprise bang’. 

See lot 59 for photographs of the garden party, see lot 605 for the invitation.

LITERATURE

‘Freddie Mercury, The Great Pretender, A Life In Pictures’, Welbeck, 2020 Edition, p.128.