Page 72 - Bonhams Chinese Art NYC Nov 9 2017

Head of Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; in 1932 he
was appointed Italian Ambassador to the Netherlands; in 1938
he was appointed Ambassador to China, where he remained
until 1946; and his last diplomatic appointment was in 1951 as
Ambassador to Spain until 1952.

Sent to China in 1938 as Ambassador to the Nationalist
government of Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing, he became an acute
- and far from humourless, despite the hardships of everyday life
- front line eye-witness of the Second Sino-Japanese War, during
which the Japanese forces captured the capital and attacked
Shanghai. When Mussolini recognised Wang Jingwei’s Japanese
puppet government, Taliani presented his credentials to him. On
8 September 1943, having refused to swear allegiance to the
Italian Social Republic (Republic of Salò), he and his wife, the
Archduchess Margaretha d’Austria Toscana (1894 - 1986), were
arrested and interned by the Japanese in a concentration camp
near Shanghai, where they remained for two years until the end
of the war. After the end of hostilities, the new government of
Alcide De Gasperi reconfirmed him as Ambassador to China until
1946.

A number of masterpieces of classical Chinese furniture in
the collection have been published by the eminent scholar Dr
Gustav Ecke in his seminal book Chinese Domestic Furniture,
Beijing, 1944, as well as Dr Ecke’s article devoted to folding
chairs, ‘Wandlungen Des Faltstuhls: Bemerkungen zur
Geschichte der Euraischen Stuhlform’ (‘Development of the
Folding Chair: Observations on Euroasian Chair Forms’), which
was published in Monumenta Serica, vol.9, 1944.

Many of the purchase invoices survive, providing an important
documentation of Chinese art dealers active in Shanghai and
Beijing between 1938 and 1946. The majority of the invoices
are dated to between December 1938 and July 1943, with a
significant gap until April 1946, explained by Marchese and
Marchesa Taliani’s internment by the Japanese. The long list
of dealers demonstrates the vibrant Chinese art market in
Marchese Taliani de Marchio presenting his credentials Shanghai and Beijing in the late 1930s and early 1940s; this list
includes the following:

Marchese Taliani was a distinguished Italian diplomat who In Shanghai - K. D. Lu, Yee Chun Chang, C. K. Chou,
lived through major historical upheavals of the first half of the Strehlneek’s Gallery of Chinese Art, The Midoh Co., Tung Koo
20th century, events whose impact affect all to this day. His Tsar Chinese Curios & Arts Co., Philip Chu, Zui Wha Curios &
first diplomatic appointment was to Berlin in 1912; followed by Co., T. Y. King & Co., King Koo Chai, Tai Loong & Co., Tin Dao
Constantinople in 1913, where during the First World War he Shan Fang, Y. L. Hong, Chu Tsun Tsai, The China Curios Co.,
negotiated an agreement for the protection of Italian citizens Hsueh Ken Chai, Zung Chang Ziang Co., The Little Pagoda, M.
and interests in the (soon to be partitioned) Ottoman Empire. L. Kwauh, Hoggard – Sigler, and Foo Yuen Tsai.
From 1916 to 1919 he served in St Petersburg, and under
the privilege of diplomatic immunity was in a unique position In Beijing - J. Plaut, Jung Hsing Chai, Mathias Komor, Tung Ku
to observe and chronicle first-hand the October Revolution, Chai Curio and Picture Store, Yi Pao Chai Jade Store, Jung Hsing
its day by day development, the subsequent fall of Tsarist Chai, Wan E. Cheng, Yung Pao Chia Jade Store, Mario Prodan,
Russia and the establishment of the Soviet Republic; from and Tung Yi & Co.
1919 he served in Rome as Secretary of State for the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs; with later assignments to London (1921 - Marchese Taliani published three books: Pietrogrado 1917,
1923) and again to Constantinople (1924 - 1928), this time as Milan, 1935; È Morto in Cina, Milan, 1949; and Dopoguerra a
the Republic of Turkey; from 1929 - 1930 he was in Rome as Shanghai, Milan, 1958.