A Chinese white porcelain (blanc de Chine) figure of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy. Hollow, with head and hands inserted. With downcast eyes and a benign expression, the deity stands on a hollow mound base with clouds. She has elongated ear lobes (as befits a Bodhisattva), and her hair is dressed in plaits and coiled on top, with a diadem bearing an image of Amitabha Buddha (celestial Buddha, often called the Buddha of infinite light) seated on a lotus. A mantle covering the head falls to the shoulders, and her long robes hang in folds across the chest below a chain necklace with a ruyi-head ornament; from the long sleeves project arms adorned with wrist bands, with hands clasped. Below is an under-robe falling to her projecting feet. The robes were later picked out in red, green and black pigments, now largely worn off, and the base and mantle in a greenish pigment with vestiges of gilding.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.