Guanyin the Merciful is perhaps the most popular deity represented in Chinese sculpture. She is the protector of women and bringer of children and is often depicted holding an infant like a Christian Madonna. This figure has been made in white porcelain at Dehua in southern China, a form known as blanc de Chine porcelain. Blanc de Chine wares were traded by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and later by the Dutch and English East India Companies through southern Chinese ports such as Amoy (modern-day Xiamen). In Europe, colours were sometimes added to the white figures to suit fashionable taste. Blanc de Chine figures were displayed in houses and palaces in large numbers, notably at Hampton Court Palace, where Mary II (1662–94) amassed a large collection of such wares.