The Daoist goddess is seated, enamelled on the biscuit, her hair piled high under a scarf painted with two shou characters in green on yellow.

The seated Guanyin is amongst the most popular figures of this period. It represents the Confucian Goddess of Mercy, reputed to have been the Princess Miaoshan from remote antiquity. When Buddhism came in Guanyin assumed a male form and was worshipped as the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. By the beginning of the 17th century she was female again and is often represented with a young child. She was very popular with European merchants who sold figures of Guanyin as the Madonna and Child.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 84

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 22 March 1948 (£135)

Location: Not on display