hi dave
i am not an expert on these elaberate bowl and plate in my opinion its old japanese hand done painted then gold leafed all around bowl and plate this set you have is telling a story it tells me that posibly this woman on her knees is bearing a gift to possibly a new bride and the plate tells me that its family and possibly relitives the signiture appears japanese not chinese also the japanese were great with butterflies birds animals etc dont get me wrong i could be all wet its possible to be chinese if i was to guess on a year when it was made i would say 1920s 1930s it has age not new thats for sure it is a very fine piece of china and magnificently made if you look at the back ground the little white dots thats all hand done all most like japanese norataki china only difference the noritaki has raised dots not indentations you might have a winner here im sure some japanese man at the max can read the su=igniture for you and some can tell you what the story of this set means i have had and seen many of japanese sets like this over my fifty years collecting antiques i hope i have helped some what here god bless andy militarynut