This little dish is 16 x 11 cm. It is Marutomo Ware, made in Japan. I haven't found a website about this particular firm, but there are lots of items offered on eBay, and from the dates given there I think this would date from the 1930s.
This type of porcelain is referred to as Majolica, featuring bright, coloured glazes and modelled in relief. Collecting Majolica pottery gives a description of how it was made, and this system is probably why the glaze crazes so readily. This little dish is heavily crazed. When I took it out of the cupboard there was a lot of rusty deposits in the cracks - which is why we have to wash our china regularly in soapy water, I guess.
Would it be a sweet dish? It is about the size of a butter dish.
This little dish came out of my grandmother Annie Frost's crystal cabinet. I've always thought of the bird being a rather Japanese-looking kookaburra - but perhaps it is a Japanese bird, I'm not sure. I thought the tree on which is is perched had gumnuts on it, which is why I was thinking kookaburra.
