Chinese Toggle Depicting a Recumbent Phoenix

A dark green beast with a bird's beak and a swept-back crest.

This toggle depicting a recumbent phoenix is from China, and dates to the 20th century. It is jade. Many toggles carried auspicious symbols drawn from wordplay, so a monkey, whose word can sound like the word for Marquis, suggested high rank, and a carp suggested success in civil service examinations. The animal rests on bent legs with a hooked beak, a round eye and incised feather lines along the wing. A scroll rises behind the head. The stone is a deep forest green with black patches at the feet and tail. It is 2.75 inches wide, 1 deep and 1.5 high.

Part bird, part riddle, entirely sure of itself.