Assessing Different Types of Qing and Ming Dynasty Belt Hooks
What collectors look for—from color variations to auspicious symbols.
In nearly every sale of Chinese works of art, you’re bound to find at least one jade belt hook. Primarily dating back to the Qing dynasty—with rarer examples having been produced during the Ming dynasty or earlier—jade hooks present a fascinating collecting category: there are so many variations in form and color, as well as quality of stone and carving.
The Chinese belt hook design appears to have been based on examples worn by people of the steppes, with some of the earliest examples of Chinese jade belt hooks found in tombs dating to the early Warring States period (475–221 BCE).
Two white jade examples—excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi in Zheng in the Hubei Province, circa 433 BCE, and now in the Hubei Provincial Museum—are illustrated in volume ten of The Complete Collection of Jades Unearthed in China. These belt hooks are fairly short in length compared to the typical Ming and Qing dynasty examples, and have broad bodies, a button on the back, and hooks that terminate with a bird’s head.
The form most often seen is oblong with a subtle curve along its length, and openwork qilong (or juvenile dragon) carved on the body of the hook, which faces a larger dragon head; a button for attachment to a belt is usually found on the reverse. According to Terese Tse Bartholomew in Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art (2006), the juvenile dragon facing the larger dragon is illustrative of the saying “canglong jiaozi” or “the old dragon teaching its young,” expressing the wish that elder generations may pass down office to younger generations.
In addition to the “canglong jiaozi” type, some belt hook variants may be found with goose-head hooks—inspired by the belt hooks of the Warring States period—while others depict horse heads. The bodies may also be carved with birds, monkeys, flowers, or scroll work. In the most elaborate examples, even the button on the underside may be carved. An unusual example from the collection of Reese Paley has a horse-head hook and two monkeys contesting a peach on the upper surface of the body. It is likely that the monkeys and horse head serve as a rebus for the saying “mashang (feng)hou,” which may be translated as “may you (immediately) reach the rank of a Marquis,” as also stated by Bartholomew.
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For collectors of Chinese belt hooks, the most important factors to note are the quality and subject of the carving, the quality of the stone, and the overall size of the belt hook. A finely carved belt hook—of interesting or unusual form, and of a fine white, yellow, or pale celadon tone—will generally be more valuable than a belt hook that is poorly or stiffly carved, and muddy or unattractively mottled in color.
One desirable type of belt hook occurs when natural color variations in the stone are cleverly incorporated into the carving. Examples of these types may be of an even white with the outer russet skin of the stone retained and carved with a dragon that contrasts with the paler body. This is also true of jadeite examples in which the carver incorporates the natural variations in color and tone of the stone into the carved motifs.