Chinese Toggle Depicting Shoes

Squared-off twin shoes with swirling rosette toes and a hole bored through one hollow.

This toggle depicting shoes is from China, and dates to the 19th century. It is wood. A toggle, or netsuke-style fastener, was worn in China on a cord at the waist to hold a pouch, fan case or other small item. The piece reads as a boxy pair with deep, rectangular hollows on top and carved rosette scrolls at the toe ends. Fine leafy lines decorate the front panel, and a round hole opens inside one hollow. Pale residue sits in the recesses against dark brown. It is 1 inches wide, 1.25 deep and 0.75 high.

More ornament per square inch than any slipper deserves.