Description
Dress accessory, toggle, in the shape of two young boys, symbol of wishing for many sons, metal alloy [brass], maker unknown, China, c. 1700-1940
Solid metal form in the shape of two boys playing, with their heads and feet at diagonally opposite corners, forming a square shaped toggle.
Toggles functioned as weights to counterbalance dress accessories such as tobacco pouches.
Significance statement
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.
Min-Jung Kim
Curator, Asian Design & Society
June 2008
Production notes
Maker unknown
History notes
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, the antiques street.
Credit line
Gift of Mr Alastair Morrison, 1992
Design marks
No marks
Registration number
92/435
