George Michael: Sofa which appeared on the cover of famous album enjoys new lease of life

However, the sofa had become battered and bruised in the years since the photograph was taken in the early 2000s. With help from the Leather Repair Company in Hull, it has been restored to a pristine condition.

Mr Huse drove from his home in Surrey to Yorkshire to collect the sofa so he could place it on display in his home by Christmas Day, the seventh anniversary of the singer’s death.

He came across the sofas as he was browsing an online auction in April with the aim of adding to his collection of Queen memorabilia, which includes a guitar signed by the band’s guitarist Sir Brian May.

The Bradford University graduate decided to buy the sofa which came with a poster for the cover of the multimillion-selling 2004 release “Patience”, a CD of the album signed by the singer and a copy of one of the platinum discs it received. Also included was a certificate of authenticity showing that the sofa had originally been sold in 2012 at the Emeralds & Ivy ball, hosted by Ronan Keating in aid of Cancer Research.

He said “I just put a bid in and three weeks later I was told I had won. Then I had to think about how to bring it back to life. If I’d had it re-upholstered I’d have lost the history and provenance so I did some online research.”

His determination to restore the original look led him to the Leather Repair Company, which was founded by Richard and Carolynne Hutchins.

Mr Hutchins said: “David gave us a call and then sent photographs. The sofa was faded, and there were dirt marks, lipstick and dog hairs. They added to the intrigue and also to the challenge, but we knew we could do it to so we asked him to bring it in.”

Mr Huse dropped off the sofa in August and the Leather Repair Company got to work on it in between attending leather repair trade shows in the US. The repair work also provided a few clues as to the history of the sofa.

He said: “Richard had to take it apart to complete a full restoration and he found all sorts – a hair clip, lipstick marks and dog hairs among the general grime and dirt which had accumulated during years of poor storage and a lack of love.

“But we know George Michael loved dogs and there are photographs of him with them, including on a gleaming white sofa.

"As far as I’m concerned the hair clip was his. As for the lipstick, who knows and who cares? It’s just a shame we didn’t find any scraps of paper with scribbled lyrics to hits that got away.”

Ms Hutchins added: “It’s been a fascinating and painstaking project. We always do the very best we can, whether it’s a £20 favourite handbag or something like this, because they are so important to our clients. We did find ourselves wishing the sofa could talk and what stories it might be able to tell.”