This is the smallest of the Guanyin figures in the collection. She is seated in meditation, with hands apparently folded within the sleeves. The only adornment is an applied beaded necklace. The whole piece was evenly covered in a pure ivory glaze. Small figures like this were probably produced in quantity to be sold as souvenirs to pilgrims at famous religious sites such as Mount Putuo off the coast of Zhejiang.The period of about 250 years between the Eastern Jin (317– 420CE) and the reunification of China under the Sui in 589 CE, was a time of political unrest and natural disasters such as floods, famine and plague, and Buddhist and Daoist claims about the imminent end of the world. It is within this context that Guanyin worship gained popularity.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.
