Chinese Toggle Depicting Shoes

Two toe-up slippers lean together, their ridged tops curling like little waves.

This toggle depicting shoes is from China, and dates to the 19th century. It is wood. Wood is a lighter and warmer material than jade for toggles, and carvers shaped it with small tools into compact forms that sit comfortably in the hand. Overall, a pair of small shoe forms with raised, rolled rims around the openings and long parallel ribs behind. The toes sweep forward in a smooth rounded point. The surface is a warm tan-orange with darker, patinated hollows. It is 1 inches wide, 1.5 deep and 0.5 high.

Sleek in profile, a little smug about it.