Chinese Toggle Depicting Rooster

A flat, tall plaque in rosy tan, covered in tangled looping linework.

This toggle depicting rooster 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 narrow rectangular slab narrows slightly at the bottom and has a single hole near the top. Incised scrolls and curling forms run in a long column down the face. The color is a warm pinkish brown. It is 1 inches long, 0.25 deep and 3 high.

Every inch scribbled in, and no regrets.