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China–Cuba Friendship Badge, 1961 (中古友好)
Object/Artifact
An upright rectangular enamel-on-gilt-metal badge (cloisonné/champlevé technique). At the upper left is the Cuban national flag (blue-and-white stripes, red hoist triangle with white star); at the upper right, the flag of the People's Republic of China (red field with one large and four small gilt stars). The lower half is filled with a gilt-and-enamel emblem: ears of grain (yellow), a pink/magenta lotus blossom, green foliage, red ribbons, and a central gilt terrestrial globe with a meridian ring (tentative). A red cartouche carries the date "1961," and a green banner beneath bears four gilt Chinese characters, 中古友好 (Zhōng Gǔ Yǒuhǎo, "China–Cuba Friendship").
2025.2.26
Obtained in Cuba by Anna Veltfort and brought to New York City with her when she moved back to the US.
The badge commemorates the new friendship between revolutionary Cuba and the PRC. Cuba's September 1960 recognition of Beijing — announced by Fidel Castro at the First Declaration of Havana — made it the first Western-Hemisphere state to establish ties with the People's Republic, opening a period (1960–1964) of close cooperation: interest-free Chinese credits, Chinese purchase of Cuban sugar, technician training, and reciprocal delegations (Che Guevara to China in 1960; President Dorticós in 1961). The paired national flags, the globe (internationalism), and the lotus and grain (Chinese decorative symbolism of friendship and prosperity) express that bilateral solidarity. As a Chinese-manufactured friendship badge, it entered Cuban circulation through these exchanges of the early 1960s.
Anna Veltfort collection
2025.2
Anna Veltfort
Gift
1961
People's Republic of China
Asia
Maker/Attribution: Unmarked on the visible face; maker not identified (reverse not seen). People's Republic of China.
Inscription
1961 中古友好
Chinese
China–Cuba Friendship
2.2 cm
1.8 cm
Single enamel-on-metal badge.
Metal
Stamped gilt metal (brass) with polychrome vitreous enamel (cloisonné/champlevé) — blue, white, red, yellow, pink/magenta, green — and gilt detailing (technique tentative pending inspection).
Good
Anna Veltfort
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
acquisition, preservation
New York City
New York
U.S.A.
North America
preservation
People's Republic of China
Asia
production
Open questions: issuing body/occasion (general friendship issue vs. a specific 1961 delegation, association, or the Dorticós visit); whether the yellow ears represent wheat or sugarcane; confirmation of the globe device (possible dove).