Chinese belt toggles called 'zhuizi' are small carved ornaments used as counterweights on the cords of pipe bags and other small bags which were usually hung on men's belts.
Chinese clothes were not well provided with pockets, so bags which could be suspended from a belt were useful articles of attire. In order to fulfil its primary purpose of securing things to a belt, a toggle must have what the Chinese called a 'string eye', which could pass a string or cord.
Toggle wearing disappeared from China in the 1940s, when western style clothing replaced traditional clothing.
Seen as possessing the chief powers of the whole organism of a tree or plant, roots came to be associated with magical powers and were used as medicine.
The North Chinese and the Manchurians had a fascination with gnarled or strangely-shaped roots which, with a good imagination, could take the form of an animal.
In this case, the shape of the toggle resembles that of a bat.
Bats are believed to be auspicious creatures and it should be noted that the Chinese pronunciation of 'bat' and 'happiness', "fu" is the same.
(reference)
Cammann, Schuyler, Substance and Symbol in Chinese Toggles, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962, London, pp.40, 131.
This toggle is part of a group that was collected in Peking by Hedda and Alastair Morrison between 1940 and 1942. Most of them were purchased from markets outside Chongwenmen Gate, and in Liulichang, a street known for its antique shops.
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