Chinese Toggle Depicting Fish

A creamy, sun-warmed pebble with a serpentine creature coiled across it.

This toggle depicting fish 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 oval plaque is carved in shallow relief with a snaking body and swirling cloud forms around the edges. Small holes sit at the left and lower edges. The color is warm cream with light tan patches. It is 2.25 inches long, 0.25 deep and 1.25 high.

Slithering in relief, with no sign of effort.