Chinese Toggle Depicting Laughing Scholar

A laughing seated old man with a staff and a fruit, perched in a lotus-like base.

This toggle depicting laughing scholar is from China. It is jade. The dragon is a popular toggle motif symbolizing wisdom, ambition and prosperity, a five-clawed version represented the emperor, and a dragon with a phoenix suggested marriage and was a wedding gift. The figure grins with a wrinkled brow and open mouth, one arm raised, sitting among rounded fruit and leaves. The petals of the base curve below. The stone is a pale cream shading to a warm taupe. It is 1.6 inches long, 1 deep and 0.75 high.

Cheerful and crowded, with no room left over.