Rare copy of Mao’s Little Red Book expected to fetch more than £30,000

The prototype edition of the book of Mao quotations. The book helped shape Mao’s cult of personality before and during the Cultural Revolution and the trajectory of Chinese history in the 20th century. Photograph: Chiswick Auctions

The Little Red Book, a talisman of 20th-century Maoism, may have fallen out of favour in China after the Cultural Revolution, but its popularity with collectors shows no sign of abating.

The book, officially entitled Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, was given its popular name due to the bright red cover of mass-produced editions. A rare prototype version is about to resurface in a sale by a west London auction house of hundreds of artefacts from the Cultural Revolution, where it is expected to fetch more than £30,000.