This figure of Guanyin is adorned with a simple neck pendant and ruyi-shaped headpiece. She is seated in the posture of 'royal ease' (rajalalitasana), with both hands folded within the sleeves. The porcelain body is extremely pure and the pale ivory glaze has the smooth oily quality that has been likened to white glass.Figures of Guanyin were given as offerings by devotees as indicated by a carved rhinoceros horn figure of Guanyin pouring holy water from a vase. An inscription refers to it as an offering by the scholar Mi Wanzhong in the year equivalent to 1599. Rhinoceros-horn figures probably inspired the cheaper porcelain substitutes. The wide base and tapering curvature of figurative pieces often echo the shape of the rhinoceros horn.Dehua, located on the southeast coast of Fujian province, is well known for its production of white porcelain, known to Europeans as 'blanc de Chine'. The earliest Dehua porcelain was produced as early as the 14th century but the production and quality of these porcelain peaked around the 17th and 18th centuries.
