[Illustration: ANOTHER KWAN-YIN. MING. So many references are made to the goddess Kwan-Yin, and she is represented in such a number of statuettes, that no collection of Chinese porcelain would be complete without her. Sometimes she is seated, at others she is standing. Often she is found in white of various tints, but the finest specimens are painted with coloured enamels. Here we have a most beautiful and valuable example in enamel colours of a seated figure of Kwan-Yin. The robe is of pale green relieved with a formal floral design in aubergine, yellow, and black. The neck is adorned with a necklet of beads in yellow enamel. The head-dress is of rich apple-green decorated with a swastika in yellow and with Cheou characters in black. There are also medallions, each containing a hawthorn leaf in green on an aubergine and black ground. The hair is of black enamel; face, neck, hands, and sceptre in biscuit. The figure is supported on an oblong pedestal, which is surmounted by an upturned lotus flower; the leaves of this are in pale green and aubergine. The front is represented as a sunk panel, on which is a very early diaper design in yellow, green, aubergine, and black. The four corners are incised. The sides of the pedestal are decorated with branches of hawthorn blossoms in green, black, and aubergine, on a white ground, whilst on the back is a river scene with junk, rock, trees, &c., in yellow, green, and black, unglazed on a white ground. Ming period.]
[Illustration: KWAN-YIN. The third illustration of this goddess--the queen of heaven--shows her again in connection with the lotus, the emblem of purity, also the symbol of creative power. The fish, too, is often associated with her and with the gods. There was a noted carp which lived at the bottom of Buddha's lotus pond, but generally the carp is an emblem of longevity, and figures of fish are amongst the charms which frighten away bad demons. The flowers which rise from behind the nimbus or halo round the head of the goddess is the magnolia, the emblem of sweetness and beauty, which, like the prunus, shows its full blossom before the leaves appear. The illustration is the model of a shrine, the back representing a rock in rich aubergine; this is relieved with bamboo plants in green. In the centre, on an upturned lotus flower, is a seated figure of Kwan-Yin in robes of green and yellow; the other portions of her body in biscuit, as are also the leaves of the lotus flower; under these is a giant leaf supporting the whole; on either side of the Kwan-Yin are two male attendants, the one standing on a lotus flower, the other on a leaf; these figures are in biscuit relieved with green enamel. Under the figure of the goddess is a carp in yellow enamel rising from the waves, which are in green, and immediately in front is a sacred vessel in green enamel on an aubergine base.]