Chinese Toggle Depicting Bamboo with Bat

Brown-lined bamboo section grows a leaf and a drilled hole on one side.

This toggle depicting bamboo with bat is from China, and dates to the late 19th or early 20th century. It is jade. Jade was generally the most preferred and valued material for toggles, a precious stone integral to Chinese culture since the Neolithic Period and often called the stone of heaven. Rusty brown strokes outline the ridges of this short, squared section of segmented stalk in pale grey-green. A leafy sprig in darker line wraps around the right edge, and a small hole is drilled near the corner. The surface is smooth. It is 1.25 inches wide, 0.25 deep and 1.7 high.

Bamboo that has never needed rain.