In April of 1999, a Chenghua Chicken Cup set the record for the highest price ever paid for any porcelain at auction.  It brought 29 million Hong Kong dollars (3.77 million US dollars).  That record has since been exceeded. It was featured in Sotheby's April 27, 1999 Catalogue Number HK0147, Lot Number 410. 

Here is an article about that auction:

Sotheby's said the price was a record for a Chinese porcelain, noting the Chenghua doucai was considered one of the most desired of all imperial porcelain.

It was also the highest price paid for any Chinese work of art auctioned in Hong Kong, Sotheby's said in a statement.

The cup, painted in bright enamels, shows two groups of cockerel, hen and chicks.

Carlton Rochell, Sotheby's managing director of southern China and Southeast Asia, displays a rare porcelain "chicken cup" from the Chenghua period of China's Ming Dynasty after it set a record price for porcelain at the company's first ever Asia Week Chinese Ceramics auction in Hong Kong April 27. The cup, which is one of only three chicken cups now in private hands and is among the most famous of imperial Chenghua porcelain still in existence, was sold for HK$29,170,000 (US$3.77 million). Photo by Bobby Yip (Reuters).

Chinese Cup Fetches Record Price

In HK Auction

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A small porcelain "chicken" cup from the period of China's Ming dynasty fetched a record HK$29,170,000 (US$3,768,734) at auction Tuesday, Sotheby's said.

The doucai chicken cup, from the Chenghua period of the Ming dynasty (AD 1465-1487) was purchased by a London dealer.

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April 27, 1999 © Reuters Limited.