Interasia's next auction of Chinese, Hong Kong and Asian stamps will be held on February 26-28 in Hong Kong, as we've reported. Last year, Interasia broke world records with their Asian stamp sale, and it looks like they have their sights set on doing it again.

The sale, it's been announced, contains 3,000 lots of Chinese, Hong Kong and Asian stamps and postal history, the largest stamp auction ever held in Hong Kong (in terms of number of lots).

The sale is highlighted by the incomparable People's Republic 1968 Mao's Inscription to Japanese Worker Friends corner block of four that is set to establish the record for the most expensive People's Republic philatelic item ever sold at auction (pre-sale estimate HK$ 6m-8m [US$ 774,000-1,032,000]) and which anchors a mammoth 600-lot offering of PRC.

The block is believed to be the largest multiple of this great rarity of the Cultural Revolution and probably the only surviving block of four. This should make someone an excellent investment

The stamps of the People Republic of China is an immensely popular and widely followed area which is strongly represented by over 600 lots, Interasia's largest offering ever of this immensely popular subject, and is anchored by Ng Siong Tee's Cultural Revolution collection, which won a Gold Medal at the International Exhibition in Beijing in 1999 and features the corner block already mentioned.

Mr. Ng's collection also includes a magnificent corner example of the unissued Victory stamp and unused and used examples of the iconic "The Whole Country is Red", as well as a detailed study of the postal history of the W (Wen) series.

Other noteworthy PRC rarities in the sale include the two 1958 Student Union Congress inscription errors unused and two of the immensely rare 1964 Peking Opera Masks.

Block of stamps with Mao's inscription to Japanese workers

Complete sheet offerings include a very rare set of sheets of the 1967 25th Anniversary of "Talks on Literature and Art" and a full sheet of the ever-popular 1980 Year of the Monkey.

A very nice section of Liberated Areas, with elusive postal history, from a leading student precedes this mammoth offering of the People's Republic general issues.

As has recently been re-affirmed by Spink's auction of the 'crown jewel' of Hong Kong philately, the 96c olive-bistre block which sold for a world record, the markets in the region are still in a very strong state.

Watch this space for more details of the sale. Collectors and investors interested in stamps from the region may wish to take a look at these two rarities: an 1885 Chinese olive-yellow strip and this 1888 Taiwanese block of Horse and Dragons.