A bronze articulated model of a spiny lobster | Edo period, 19th century

Colonel Kenneth Dingwall (1869-1946); and thence by decent

Born in Caterham, England, Kenneth Dingwall was a highly decorated officer and collector of East-Asian ceramics. He was made a Lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders in 1894 before serving in the North-West Frontier from 1895 to 1898. Sent to South Africa in 1899 he was in action throughout the Boer War (1899-1902), for which he received the DSO in 1901. After a short retirement from the army in 1904, he re-joined in 1914 and was frequently employed as a Deputy Judge-Advocate during First World War (1914-1918).

An active collector of Chinese ceramics, Dingwall founded the Oriental Ceramic Society along with his brother-in-law Vernon Wethered (1865-1952) in 1921. He belonged to the National Art Collections Fund and was the single largest donor to the Victoria and Albert Museum between 1910 and 1937, leaving a further bequest in 1948, and donating four items to the British Museum. Part of his collection was sold at Sotheby’s London on 10^th March 1933, consisting of 90 lots of mostly Tang to Ming ceramics.

Japanese armour is characterised by its flexibility, made from numerous small, lacquered iron plates laced together with silk or leather braid to maximise freedom of movement. This design inspired the term ‘jizai’, which can be translated as ‘to do at will’, to refer to the articulated ornaments known as jizai okimono produced during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Often modelled in the form of dragons, shellfish, snakes or insects, whose robust and flexible scales, shells or exoskeletons mirror that of Japanese armour, these fully articulated objects were forged with naturalistic and exacting detail. After the abolition of the samurai in the late 1870s, many armourers turned to the creation of these articulated figures for display.

The spiny lobster, or Ise ebi, was already a popular motif in armour design: its segmented shell resembled the samurai’s battle gear, and its long antennae and body had associations with longevity – a most auspicious feature with the New Year’s celebrations.