A collection of notes written by the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, have been sold at auction in London for ten times the estimated price.

The notes, written in 1975, sold for 704,750 GBP (910,000 US dollars), with Sotheby’s auction house describing them as being of the “utmost rarity.”

The collection was written to a professor hired to read to Mao and touches on Chinese literature and poetry.

Written the year before his death when his health was failing, the notes were a means of easing communication.

Mao meets US President Richard Nixon in Beijing in 1972. /VCG Photo

Sotheby’s said they provide “numerous valuable insights into Mao’s thinking on literature.”

The auction house did not reveal the identity of the buyer but did confirm there had been global interest in the collection.

Asked why the notes had been sold far more than their original estimate, Sotheby’s said they were “exceptionally rare”.