A slice of history was gobbled up for a hefty price when an official state banquet menu signed by Mao Zedong was auctioned off for a cool $275,000. Paddles went flying at the Boston-based RR Auction as collectors sought to get a taste of the past with the menu from an October 19, 1956, banquet that hosted Pakistan’s Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in Beijing.
As reported by AP News, the menu, which included dishes like “Consommé of Swallow Nest and White Agaric” and “Roast Peking Duck,” was not the only item to fetch a high price that day. Besides, there were the signatures of six major Chinese figures, encompassing Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai, making it a collector’s dream and an embodiment of a historical milestone in Sino-Pakistani relations.
In the sweepstakes of historical memorabilia, RR Auction is no stranger to the spotlight, having seen record-setting sales such as astronaut Wally Schirra's 1969 Apollo 11 Commemorative Watch, which scored an astronomical $1.9 million and an Apple-1 Computer Prototype connected to Steve Jobs, netting $677,196. Established in 1976, the auction house has prided itself on being a prestigious purveyor of the authentic and the extraordinary in the world of collectibles.
According to the firm RR Auction, other notable items included a fully operational World War II-era Enigma coding machine that sold for $206,253, a Thomas Edison-signed light bulb patent document fetching $22,154, and a literal signature of Silicon Valley lore—a check signed by Steve Jobs to Radio Shack for $4.01 that surprisingly cashed out at $46,063. Mingling with the signatures of American ingenuity were Hollywood costumes, presidential autographs, and space artifacts. The firm specializes in a cornucopia of historic trinkets with authentication verified by both in-house and third-party experts.
Bobby Livingston, executive vice president at RR Auction, captured the sentiment of many collectors when he told AP News, “To hold a menu signed by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai is to hold a piece of the past—a piece that tells a story of diplomatic engagement, cultural exchange, and the forging of friendships that have endured through the decades.” With each gavel drop, history enthusiasts and investors alike continue to revel in the opportunity to clutch a tangible piece of the days gone by, one auction lot at a time.
