This stoneware dish was found in Australia during earth moving on a
building site for a new house. It was in a layer that also contained ceramic
ginger beer bottles that date from around the 1880s. Nothing more
recent was found.

http://www.box.net/shared/static/1a56q6mipm.JPG

The dish must have had a lid that rested on its internal rim. There are no maker's marks.

My neighbour is asking me - because I am a forensic archaeologist. I have told
him that the gold design looks too abstract to date from the period of
the 1880s. I would have guessed the dish is no earlier than the 1920s.

Is my impression correct?