Menu with Mao Zedong’s autograph put up for auction for $275,000

This unique lot for collectors dates back to 1956.

The menu, signed by Chinese President Mao Zedong, was put up for auction. The starting price is estimated at 275 thousand dollars. The menu was reportedly signed in 1956 for an official banquet of a Chinese leader. What did the Chinese leader eat?

Fox news reports that the auction included a menu for an official reception, which was signed in 1956 by Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong. The initial estimate of the lot is 275 thousand dollars.

Boston-based RR Auction said the plate was intended for a banquet held in Beijing on October 19, 1956, to celebrate Pakistani Prime Minister Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy’s first state visit to China. Then important agreements were signed for both sides on the exchange of coal from China for Pakistani cotton, industrial development and training of engineers.

Let us remember that Mao Zedong was the “Great Helmsman” of China, one of the most famous politicians of his time, who ruled the country for several decades. Considered a controversial personality, he initiated large-scale reforms in the Middle Kingdom, called the “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution.”

During his years in power, Mao Zedong turned China into an independent power with atomic weapons and launched the process of industrialization and industrial development in the country. The life expectancy of the population has increased markedly, and the percentage of illiterate people has decreased from 80 percent to 7.

Mao Zedong made international visits infrequently, so the banquet menu with autographs of leading politicians is a real sensational find for collectors.

The menu was signed in fountain pen by six influential Chinese statesmen, including Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. The banquet featured dishes from the cuisines of both countries, including such delicacies as swallow’s nest and honey mushroom consommé, shark fin in brown sauce and roast Peking duck.

“Holding a menu signed by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai is holding in one’s hands a piece of the past that tells a story of diplomatic engagement, cultural exchange and friendships that have endured for decades,” says RR Auction Executive Vice President Bobby Livingston.

Other items sold at auction included a fully functional World War II Enigma encryption machine for $206,253, a light bulb patent document signed by Thomas Edison for $22,154, and a check signed by Steve Jobs for Radio Shack sold for $46 063 dollars. The last lot, dated July 23, 1976, was paid the same year he and Steve Wozniak launched Apple in a Silicon Valley garage.