On Wednesday 26 July 1978, the Selfridge Hotel in London hosted one of the most extraordinary gatherings in the history of British recorded music. EMI Records was receiving the Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement - the United Kingdom's highest honour for international trade — and to mark the occasion, the Directors and Management of the company's International Division assembled their most valued people to celebrate.

Among those guests was Mrs. M. Johnston, a remarkable woman whose association with EMI stretched back to 10 February 1941 - when she first walked through the doors of EMI Springfield Road as Miss M. McDonald of 125 Cromwell Road, Hayes End, Middlesex. By the time of the 1978 luncheon, she had given the company nearly four decades of her working life, and it was fitting that she was present to share in this honour.

At the conclusion of the luncheon - which served Crêpes Princesse, Carré d'agneau rôti au romarin with Petits pois à la française and Pommes fondantes, followed by Savarin aux fruits, Café and Menthes au chocolat, accompanied by Louis Jadot Réserve 1976 and Mouton Cadet 1975 - each guest received a remarkable parting gift: a hand-numbered, limited-edition pressing of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" on striking blue vinyl. Mrs. Johnston's pressing carried the number 48.

The trade press was present to record the occasion. A reporter from Music Week noted that despite the formal nature of the ceremony, the guests - "picked from all echelons of the company" - had ensured the event burst into "quite a party atmosphere". The journalist also observed, with characteristic music industry understatement, that the blue vinyl records guests received were "likely to be worth a few bob in years to come." Those words proved rather prophetic.

What elevates this collection to an entirely different plane is not simply the blue vinyl pressing itself — already one of the rarest commercially distributed Queen items in existence - but the astonishing completeness of its provenance. Mrs. Johnston kept everything.

The collection encompasses the hand-numbered blue vinyl record, its original magenta EMI International Division carrier bag, the matching pink picture sleeve, an etched crystal wine glass engraved with the Queen's Award 1978 crest, commemorative blue handkerchiefs still in their original cellophane packaging, the luncheon menu bearing signatures from those present, the formal ADMIT ONE admission card for the event, the welcome programme card from EMI's directors, original black and white photographs taken inside the luncheon hall, the original Music Week cutting, and a remarkable supporting archive of Mrs. Johnston's own EMI employment documents - a paper trail stretching from a solicitor's letter dated November 1943, when she was still Miss McDonald, to her final EMI correspondence in March 1979.

Together, these items do not simply constitute a collection of music memorabilia. They tell a complete human story: of a woman who gave her working life to a company that, in turn, gave the world some of the most celebrated recorded music of the twentieth century - and who was present on the day that company was honoured at the very highest level of British industry. The blue vinyl numbered 48, which she carried home in that magenta carrier bag, is the centrepiece of a time capsule without parallel in the world of Queen collecting.

Complete Lot - All Twelve Items

All items have been in continuous possession of the same family since the Selfridge Hotel luncheon, 26 July 1978. Never previously offered for sale.