Note: This vase is remarkable for the fine quality of the porcelain. Chenghua porcelains, which are greatly admired and display a very distinct character both in terms of their material and their style of decoration, are the rarest Chinese porcelains.  The tones found on this vase are soft and attractive, a trademark of the Chenghua blue-and-white.  Regina Krahl in 'Muted Elegance - A Superb Chenghua Palace Bowl', Classicism in Continuum. The Arts of the Ming, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 48 notes that "Chenghua glazes are arguably the finest ever achieved at Jingdezhen.  The sensual pleasure of the touch of the Chenghua porcelain vessel is unmatched by porcelains of any other period."

Although Chenghua vases of this form are rare, a similar example was sold in these rooms, 24th November 1981, lot 71; and another was offered, 8th October 2006, lot 1162. The design of lotus blooms interspersed with millet appears on vases as early as the Yongle period; for example see a Yongle meiping, from the T.Y. Chao collection, sold in our London rooms, 1st April 1974, lot 192, and twice in these rooms, 29th November 1977, lot 23, and again, 18th November 1986, lot 42. See also a meiping illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 53; and another painted with the same decoration, attributed to the second quarter of the 15th century, from the F. Gordon Morrill Collection, sold at Doyle's New York, 16th September 2003, lot 87. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 09 Oct 2007