Lot 1550. A Longquan celadon shrine of the South Sea Guanyin, Early Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century, 10 in. (25.4 cm.) high. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 10,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2016

The figure of Guanyin is left in the biscuit and shown seated on a cloth-draped ledge within a grotto framed by vertical outcroppings of rocks and scrolling clouds that rise towards further clouds and the moon above, while two acolytes are shown standing below. 

Note : The South Sea Guanyin is a manifestation of the bodhisattvaAvalokiteshvara, particular to Chinese Buddhism, who resides at her South Sea island abode, Potalaka. For a further discussion of the South Sea Guanyin see Kaikodo Journal, Spring 2000, pp. 224-25, no. 73, from the collection of Stanley Herzman, later sold at Christie's New York, 20 September 2002, lot 308. Another similar shrine was also sold at Christie's New York, 19-20 September 2013, lot 1285. See, also, a shrine of larger size in the Illustrated Catalogue of the Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, p. 20, no. 520; and another illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 68.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art part I, 17 - 18 March 2016, New York