Chinese statesman (1893-1976). Autograph inscription signed in: Mao Zedong, "Oeuvres choisies de Mao Tse-Toung. Tome IV" (Période de la troisième guerre civile révolutionnaire). Beijing. 8vo. 488 pp. Publisher's original brown leatherette binding. - Offered together with the diplomatic archive of Charles Meyer, 1961-1965: a trove of documents and photographs, including on the relations between Cambodia and China.
$ 582,000 / 500.000 €
(76563/BN49510)
First French edition, containing an extremely rare calligraphic inscription, brush-written by Mao Zedong in 1965 shortly before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to the foreign diplomat Charles Meyer (1923-2004). - The French national Meyer spent 25 years in Indochina, including 15 years in Cambodia during the 1950s and 1960s, serving King (and later Head of State) Norodom Sihanouk as media and public affairs advisor. He formed part of the Sangkum government’s inner power circle and served as the author and editor of many official government publications.
He also wrote several books on Cambodia, including the historical accounts "Behind the Khmer Smile" (Plon, 1971) and "The French in Indochina: 1860-1910" (Hachette, 1996). Meyer left the country in 1970 in the wake of the coup d’état and the advent of the Khmer Republic. - When in the early 1960s Prince Sihanouk came to recognize revolutionary China as Cambodia's most valuable ally, Meyer took part in several high-level meetings in Beijing and on the Yangtze River that the Prince held with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Chairman Liu Shaoqi. He was present at the 1964 talks with Zhou Enlai to promote Khmero-Chinese friendship and a member of the Cambodian delegations in 1964 and 1965. It was on one of these diplomatic missions that Mao Zedong honoured Meyer by this exceptionally rare token of his esteem. - Finely preserved. The complete diplomatic archive assembled by Meyer in the course of his service in the East has survived with this inscribed volume and is available separately..
Chinese statesman (1893-1976). Autograph dedication signed. [Beijing]. Oblong 8vo (17 x 11 cm). An exceedingly rare vintage blue ink signature, in Chinese characters, inscribed to the verso of a printed invitation to a Buffet Party hosted by the China-Latin America Friendship Association at the Xinqiao Fandian (Hotel) on Thu.
$ 215,340 / 185.000 €
(84211/BN54645)
A fine signature obtained during a 1960 Buffet Party in honour of Latin American communists, held at Beijing's Xinqiao Hotel and attended by Mao Zedong. The China-Latin America Friendship Association, who hosted the venue, was established in Beijing earlier that same year, in March 1960, and soon became the general fortress of cultural infiltration into Latin America. The U.S. diplomat Roy R. Rubottom Jr., who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (1957-60), noted that, also in 1960, Mao Zedong appeared to have "gone out of his way" to receive Latin American Communist leaders and to exhort them to give their full backing to the kind of revolution he favoured.
The following year, the Xinqiao Hotel would be the site of a major conference hosted by Zhou Enlai, who there encouraged intellectuals and cultural activists to start work again. - Following the end of World War II, the Communist movement was flourishing in Latin America, and as early as 1947 Mao Zedong was prompted to remark that "the Latin American peoples are not the obedient slaves of United States Imperialism". Chairman Mao and the Chinese communists' goal was the defeat of United States Imperialism, and Latin America was regarded as vital to attaining this goal, as it supported Mao Zedong’s theory of the establishment of rural revolutionary base areas. Chinese interest and activities in Latin America increased sharply in the early 1950s (there were believed to be 250,000 card-carrying communists active in the area), and the countries were of considerable interest to the Chinese and viewed as a fertile ground for advancing Communism, not least Red China's own brand of the ideology. - Some very light overall soiling to both sides, barely affecting the signature. An attractive example of one of the rarest and most sought-after autographs of all major political leaders and cultural icons of the 20th century..
Chinese statesman (1893-1976). Album leaf signed, together with the signature of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (1892-1963). (Beijing. 8vo (149 x 212 mm). 1 page. Two signatures in ink on plain, greenish paper. Framed and glazed.
$ 145,500 / 125.000 €
(98185/BN64198)
The signatures of the heads of state of China and Pakistan, together on a single sheet, written on the occasion of the first visit to China by a Pakistani Prime Minister. Suhrawardy had taken office only a month earlier. - During this historic visit, the delegations discussed matters such as the exchange of goods (coal for cotton) and industrial development, improvements in water management, and the training of engineers. In their conversations with Suhrawardy, the Chinese sought to dispel fears of hegemony: China herself, it was pointed out, had suffered under Western colonialism and now sought to pursue industrial development in the spirit of peaceful co-existence with all countries, based on mutual respect.
The Chinese foreign minister and official host Zhou Enlai insisted to a skeptical Suhrawardy that the education of the current generation of Chinese political leaders would ensure that future generations would not commit war or aggression. - Signatures by the Great Chairman Mao are extremely rare..
Chinese statesman (1893-1976). Diary leaf signed, together with a passport issued to a South American Communist. China. 70 x 110 mm. 1 page of a day planner, with notes on the reverse. Signed in blue ballpoint ink. [With:] 1 black and white albumen photograph (58 x 70) and and a Chinese visa, printed with handwritten entry of name and date (150 x 206).
$ 139,680 / 120.000 €
(99234/BN65417)
The autograph of Chairman Mao Zedong, given to a visiting Colombian communist, Jaime Velásquez Toro (d. ca. 2000), who worked as a leftist member of the Colombian Liberal Party and as a representative of the labour union of the Frontino Gold Mines. Velásquez visited China in 1959 as part of a presidential visit by Alberto Lleras Camargo (1906-90), which allowed him to encounter Mao in person. Included along with the autograph is Velásquez's Chinese entry visa, and a snapshot of Velásquez (to the far right in a white shirt and tie, jacket slung over one arm) and his party in front of the Great Wall with a mix of Chinese and Colombian dignitaries, including Alfonso López Michelsen (second from left), later president of Columbia.
The photograph is dated to 1 October 1959, shortly after the entry date of the Chinese visa, and the signature is dated in the same ink "Oct. 7/59". - Signatures by the Great Chairman Mao are extremely rare..
Chinese statesman (1893-1976). Kang-Ri you-ji zhan-zheng di yi-ban wen-ti [Common Problems in the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla War]. Signed. [Yan'an]. 8vo (ca. 147 x 208 mm, untrimmed, gatherings unopened). (4), 98, (2) pp. With 5 folding charts and tables. Staple-bound original white wrappers, spine and front cover lettered in black with facsimile of Mao's calligraphy, additional autograph signature of.
$ 407,400 / 350.000 €
(99301/BN65623)
The first appearance in book form of this fundamental text on the use of unconventional warfare in modern conflict, with a rare early signature of Mao and compelling provenance. - One of the most consequential modern books, the ideas in Mao's 1937 pamphlet On Guerrilla Warfare have been a constant influence in a post-colonial world. Tactics that included the use of small forces for intelligence gathering, surprise attacks and then retreat, and most crucially the recruitment of peasant populations to the cause, provided a framework for strategy within many of the "small wars" of the late 20th and early 21st century.
Mao firmly believed that the addition of guerrilla action to an overall strategy could break the stalemates that occur when major powers are at war. The work’s influence was broad in the decades after World War II, influencing in particular Che Guevara to produce his own work on the subject - disseminating Mao’s ideas on warfare when agrarian and urban powers collide to the then emerging revolutionaries in South and Central America. - Mao's "Problems of Strategy in the Anti-Japanese Guerilla War" was first published in book form in "Common Problems in the Anti-Japanese Guerrilla War," an anthology of essays by communist writers published in 1938. It was issued as part of a three-volume series, together with "Lun chi jiu zhan" ("On Protracted Warfare") and "Kangri zhanzheng congshu" ("A Collection of Books for the Anti-Japanese War"), all edited by the Kangri zhanzheng yanjiuhui (Anti-Japanese War Research Committee) and sold by the Xinhua Bookstore in Mao's wartime base, Yan'an. - The accompanying letter from Jack Woddis, the International Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, is addressed to Gordon Beeson, a Socialist from Surrey, acknowledging a substantial donation he had made: "[...] many thanks for the seven guineas. I enclose a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's 'Protracted War' [sic] with his signature written on the side of the cover. I am sure that this signed book will be a rare acquisition on your part, and I can assure you that the seven guineas will be put to good use in promoting Anglo-Chinese friendship [...]". Also present is a stamped tan envelope, presumably the one in which the book was sent, with typed label and ink inscription, probably by Beeson, indicating: "This is a first edition of 'Protracted War' by Mao Ts Sung [sic] and autographed by Mao himself on the back page. Should be very valuable someday". Beeson, a respected dealer in woodwind instruments and a skilled saxophone technician, was not himself a Communist, but a member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain since 1931..