A Chinese Serpentine Toggle – 19th Century

A nicely carved light celadon to opaque white serpentine. Chinese Serpentine is a translucent, light green stone very similar in appearance to Jade. In fact it is frequently referred to and sold as Serpentine Jade or New Jade. Serpentine is native to China and Korea.

It is carved in the shape of a boy holding a flower or branch (possibly peach) over his left shoulder – excellent hand carving. Toggles were roughly the Chinese equivalent of Japanese netsuke – mainly used as pendants as opposed to the Japanese item, which kept inro from slipping through the tie of a kimono. The toggle would have been held in a vertical position from a cord – probably thin silk – from the two openings at the top of the toggle where the branch has small holes. It measures 2 3/8” long by 1 ¼” wide by 5/8” thick. Condition is excellent. We date it to the late Qing period, 19th century.

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