18TH/19TH CENTURY

Robert Hans van Gulik was a celebrated Dutch orientalist, diplomat, musician and writer. He is the author of Chinese Pictorial Art as Viewed by the Connoisseur, limited edition of 950 copies, Rome, 1958. He joined the Dutch Foreign Service in 1935 and, for the most part, was stationed in Japan and China. Whilst working for the Dutch Mission to Chiang Kaishek's Nationalist government in Chongqing he married the daughter of an Imperial mandarin (under the Manchu Dynasty). He served as the Dutch Ambassador to Japan from 1965-1967.