Chinese Toggle Depicting Fish

A plump, honey-toned fish with a big round eye and a fanned tail.

This toggle depicting fish is from China. 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. The rounded body is smoothly polished with faint lines for scales, a circular eye and open mouth. The tail spreads into a pleated fan at the left. The color runs from pale yellow to soft amber-brown. It is 2.5 inches long, 0.25 deep and 1 high.

Wide-eyed and perfectly content.