Chinese Toggle or Cong Bead

Short pale bar lies on its side with softly rounded corners.

This toggle or cong bead is from China. It is jade. People of all social classes in old China, from rickshaw drivers to court scholars, used toggles as counterweights to help hold small bags in place on their sashes. Narrow rectangular bar in pale greenish white with a cloudy, translucent look, rounded at the ends and slightly darker along the edges. A faint rust-brown stain shows near one end of the polished surface. It is 0.5 inches long, 0.5 deep and 2.25 high.

Plain to look at, and rather lovely to hold.