Chinese Toggle Depicting a Dog

A small tube-shaped piece sprouting a tiny bird head at one end.

This toggle depicting a dog is from China, and dates to the 20th century. It is jade. Traditional Chinese clothing had no pockets, so people of all social classes, from rickshaw drivers to court scholars, used toggles as counterweights to help secure small bags hanging from their sashes. A short bar with a lumpy, weathered body carries a little crested head at the left end and a round hole through the side. The color runs from pale yellow-green to mottled brown and gray, with tiny nubs underneath. It is 1 inches wide, 1.25 deep and 3 high.

Modest in size and pleasingly odd in outline.