View source for Faience

{{short description|Tin-glazed pottery}}
{{for multi|the architectural material|Glazed architectural terra-cotta|the fritware ceramics of Ancient Egypt and other ancient cultures|Egyptian faience}}
[[Image:Faience Plate Traditional.jpg|thumb|right|Modern bowl in a traditional pattern, made in [[Faenza]], Italy, which gave its name to the type]]
[[File:Potpourri with cover MET DP230522 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Sophisticated [[Rococo]] [[Niderviller faience]], by a French factory that also made porcelain, 1760–65]]

'''Faience''' or '''faïence''' ({{IPAc-en|f|aɪ|ˈ|ɑː|n|s|,_|f|eɪ|ˈ|-|,_|-|ˈ|ɒ̃|s}}; {{IPA|fr|fajɑ̃s|lang|LL-Q150 (fra)-0x010C-faïence.wav}}) is the general [[English language]] term for fine [[tin-glazed pottery]].  The invention of a white [[Ceramic glaze|pottery glaze]] suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an [[stannous oxide|oxide of tin]] to the [[Slip (ceramics)|slip]] of a [[ Lead-glazed earthenware |lead glaze]], was a major advance in the [[Pottery#History of pottery types|history of pottery]]. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A [[kiln]] capable of producing temperatures exceeding {{convert|1000|C|F|abbr=on}} was required to achieve this result, after millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of [[porcelain]] styles.

English generally uses various other terms for well-known sub-types of faience. Italian tin-glazed earthenware, at least the early forms, is called [[maiolica]] in English, Dutch wares are called [[Delftware]], and their English equivalents [[English delftware]], leaving "faience" as the normal term in English for French, German, Spanish, Portuguese wares and those of other countries not mentioned (it is also the usual French term, and ''fayence'' in German).  The name ''faience'' is simply the French name for [[Faenza]], in the [[Romagna]] near [[Ravenna]], Italy, where a painted majolica ware on a clean, opaque pure-white ground, was produced for export as early as the fifteenth century.
[[File:Berlín Manises XV.JPG|thumb|[[Hispano-Moresque ware]] dish from [[Manises]], 15th century, the earliest type of European faience]]

Technically, [[lead-glazed earthenware]], such as the French sixteenth-century [[Saint-Porchaire ware]], does not qualify as faience, but the distinction is not usually maintained. Semi-[[Glossary of pottery terms#V|vitreous]] [[stoneware]] may be glazed like faience. [[Egyptian faience]] is not really faience, or pottery, at all, but made of a vitreous [[frit]], and so closer to glass.

In English 19th-century usage "faience" was often used to describe "any earthenware with [[relief]] modelling decorated with coloured glazes",<ref>Petrie, Kevin; Livingstone, Andrew, eds., ''The Ceramics Reader'', p. 98, 2017, Bloomsbury Publishing, {{ISBN|1472584430}}, 9781472584434, [https://books.google.com/books?id=gkk0DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 google books]</ref> including much [[glazed architectural terracotta]] and [[Victorian majolica]], adding a further complexity to the list of meanings of the word.

== History ==
===Western Mediterranean===
{{main|Hispano-Moresque wares|maiolica}}
The [[Moors]] brought the technique of [[tin-glazed earthenware]] to [[Al-Andalus]], where the art of [[lustreware]] with metallic glazes was perfected. From at least the 14th century, [[Málaga]] in Andalusia and later [[Valencia, Spain|Valencia]] exported these  "[[Hispano-Moresque wares]]", either directly or via the [[Balearic Islands]] to Italy and the rest of Europe.  Later these industries continued under Christian lords.

"[[Majolica]]" and "[[maiolica]]" are garbled versions of "Maiorica",<ref>"the larger one" in Medieval Latin and Italian, as opposed to [[Menorca]], "the smaller one" of the [[Balearic Islands]]</ref> the [[island]] of [[Majorca]], which was a transshipping point for refined tin-glazed earthenwares shipped to [[Italy]] from the [[kingdom of Aragon]] at the close of the [[Middle Ages]]. This type of pottery owed much to its Moorish inheritance.

In Italy, locally produced tin-glazed earthenwares, now called ''maiolica'', initiated in the fourteenth century, reached a peak in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.  After about 1600, these lost their appeal to elite customers, and the quality of painting declined, with geometric designs and simple shapes replacing the complicated and sophisticated scenes of the best period.  Production continues to the present day in many centres, and the wares are again called "faience" in English (though usually still ''maiolica'' in Italian).  At some point "faience" as a term for pottery from [[Faenza]] in northern Italy was a general term used in French, and then reached English.<ref>Alan Caiger-Smith, 1973. ''Tin-Glazed Pottery'' (London: Faber and Faber).</ref>

===French and northern European faïence===
[[File:Tureen Marseille 1770 DMA 1997-46.jpg|thumb|[[Rococo]] [[tureen]], Marseille, {{circa|1770}}]]
The first northerners to imitate the tin-glazed earthenwares being imported from Italy were the Dutch. [[Delftware]] is a kind of faience, made at potteries round Delft in the [[Netherlands]], characteristically decorated in blue on white. It began in the early sixteenth century on a relatively small scale, imitating Italian maiolica, but from around 1580 it began to imitate the highly sought-after [[blue and white porcelain|blue and white]] [[Chinese export porcelain]] that was beginning to reach Europe, soon followed by [[Japanese export porcelain]]. From the later half of the century the Dutch were manufacturing and exporting very large quantities, some in its own recognisably Dutch style, as well as copying East Asian porcelain.

In France, the first well-known painter of faïence was [[Masseot Abaquesne]], established in Rouen in the 1530s. [[Nevers faience]] and [[Rouen faience]] were the leading French centres of faience manufacturing in the 17th century, both able to supply wares to the standards required by the court and nobility. Nevers continued the Italian ''istoriato'' maiolica style, painted with figurative subjects, until around 1650. Many others centres developed from the early 18th century, led in 1690 by [[Quimper, Finistère|Quimper]] in Brittany [https://web.archive.org/web/20050413214248/http://www.faience-de-quimper.com/histquim_en.html], followed by [[Moustiers faience|Moustiers]], [[Marseille faience|Marseille]], [[Strasbourg faience|Strasbourg]] and [[Lunéville faience|Lunéville]] and many smaller centres. The cluster of factories in the south were generally the most innovative, while Strasbourg and other centres near the Rhine were much influenced by German porcelain.

The products of faience manufactories are identified by the usual methods of ceramic connoisseurship: the character of the clay body, the character and palette of the [[ceramic glaze|glaze]], and the style of decoration, ''faïence blanche'' being left in its undecorated fired white slip. ''Faïence parlante'' (especially from Nevers) bears mottoes often on decorative labels or banners. [[Apothecary]] wares, including ''[[albarello|albarelli]]'', can bear the names of their intended contents, generally in Latin and often so abbreviated to be unrecognizable to the untutored eye. Mottoes of fellowships and associations became popular in the 18th century, leading to the ''faïence patriotique'' that was a specialty of the years of the [[French Revolution]].

"[[English delftware]]" produced in [[Lambeth]], London, and at other centres, from the late sixteenth century, provided apothecaries with jars for wet and dry drugs, among a wide range of wares. Large painted dishes were produced for weddings and other special occasions, with crude decoration that later appealed to collectors of English [[folk art]]. Many of the early potters in London were Flemish.<ref>[http://www.rpsgb.org/pdfs/mussheet14.pdf (Royal Pharmaceutical Society) "English Delftware Storage Jars"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006133828/http://www.rpsgb.org/pdfs/mussheet14.pdf |date=2007-10-06 }}</ref> By about 1600, blue-and-white wares were being produced, labelling the contents within decorative borders. The production was slowly superseded in the first half of the eighteenth century with the introduction of cheap [[creamware]].

[[Image:Faience-luneville-saint-clement.jpg|thumb|left|[[Luneville faience]]]]
Dutch potters in northern (and Protestant) Germany established German centres of faience: the first manufactories in Germany were opened at [[Hanau]] (1661) and Heusenstamm (1662), soon moved to nearby [[Frankfurt]]. In Switzerland, [[Zunfthaus zur Meisen]] near [[Fraumünster]] church houses the porcelain and faience collection of the [[Swiss National Museum]] in [[Zürich]].

By the mid-18th centuries many French factories produced (as well as simpler wares) pieces that followed the [[Rococo]] styles of the French porcelain factories and often hired and trained painters with the skill to produce work of a quality that sometimes approached them.

The products of French faience manufactories, rarely marked, are identified by the usual methods of ceramic connoisseurship: the character of the [[Body (ceramic)|body]], the character and palette of the [[ceramic glaze|glaze]], and the style of decoration, '''''faïence blanche''''' being left in its undecorated fired white slip. '''''Faïence parlante''''' bears mottoes often on decorative labels or banners. Wares for [[apothecary|apothecaries]], including [[albarello]], can bear the names of their intended contents, generally in Latin and often so abbreviated to be unrecognizable to the untutored eye. Mottoes of fellowships and associations became popular in the 18th century, leading to the '''''Faïence patriotique''''' that was a specialty of the years of the [[French Revolution]].
[[Image:Coupe couverte Ligurie Lille 130108.jpg|thumb|upright|By the mid-18th century, glazed earthenware made in [[Liguria]] was imitating decors of its Dutch and French rivals.]]

In the course of the later 18th century, cheaper [[porcelain]], and the refined earthenwares first developed in [[Staffordshire pottery]] such as [[creamware]] took over the market for refined faience. The French industry was given a nearly fatal blow by a commercial treaty with Great Britain in 1786, much lobbied for by [[Josiah Wedgwood]], which set the import duty on English [[earthenware]] at a nominal level.<ref>Coutts, Howard, ''The Art of Ceramics: European Ceramic Design, 1500-1830'', p. 220, 2001, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|0300083874}}, 9780300083873, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fRfIfV3Eq_sC&pg=PA220 google books]</ref> In the early 19th century, fine [[stoneware]]—fired so hot that the unglazed body [[vitrifies]]—closed the last of the traditional makers' ''ateliers'' even for [[beer stein]]s. At the low end of the market, local manufactories continued to supply regional markets with coarse and simple wares, and many local varieties have continued to be made in versions of the old styles as a form of [[folk art]], and today for tourists.

===Revival===
In the 19th century two [[ceramic glaze|glazing]] techniques revived by [[Mintons|Minton]] were: 1. [[Tin-glazed pottery]] in the style of Renaissance Italian [[maiolica]] and,  2. The pottery of coloured glazes decoration over unglazed earthenware molded in low relief. At the [[Great Exhibition of 1851]] and at the [[1862_International_Exhibition | International Exhibition of 1862]]<ref>'''1862''', Editorial Staff, ''Art Journal Catalogue, Exhibited Class XXXV, no.6873, D78.'', page #:8 https://archive.org/details/artjournalillust1863lond/page/n25?q=1862+Art+journal+Catalogue
"The Italian Vase [top, left, p.8] is Majolica, […] the painting being executed by a process not hitherto employed. […] The [[Ewer]] [bottom, middle, p.8] is a [[Palissy ware|Palissy]] vase.</ref> both were exhibited. Both are known today as [[Victorian majolica]].<ref>'''1999''', Paul Atterbury and Maureen Batkin, ''Dictionary of Minton'', ACC Art Books (2nd Revised edition 1 Jan. 1999), page #:124
"[…] the coloured [[Ceramic glaze|glaze]] decorated [[Earthenware|wares]] which we now call majolica, but which Minton referred to as [[Palissy ware]]s."</ref> The coloured glazes majolica wares were later also made by [[Wedgwood]] and numerous smaller [[Staffordshire Potteries|Staffordshire potteries]] round [[Burslem]] and [[Stoke-on-Trent]]. At the end of the nineteenth century, [[William de Morgan]] re-discovered the technique of lustered faience "to an extraordinarily high standard".<ref>Carnegy, p.65</ref>

===Ancient frit wares called "faience" ===
[[Image:Apis Bull - Walters 481747 - Side B.jpg|thumb|left|Egyptian pendant of lions or Apis Bull.<ref>{{cite web |publisher= [[The Walters Art Museum]] |url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/5134 |title= Combined Foreparts of a Lion and Apis Bull}}</ref> The Walters Art Museum.]]
{{Main|Egyptian faience}}
[[File:Shabti figurine of scribe HARGM7250.JPG|thumb|[[shabti]] figure in [[Egyptian faience]]]]
The term ''faience'' broadly encompassed finely glazed ceramic beads, figures and other small objects found in [[Predynastic Egypt|Egypt]] as early as 4000 BC, as well as in the [[Ancient Near East]], the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]] and Europe. However, this material is not pottery at all, containing no clay, but a vitreous [[frit]], either self-glazing or glazed. The [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] displays a piece known as "[[William the Faience Hippopotamus]]" from [[Meir, Egypt]], dated to the [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt]], {{circa|1981}}–1885 BC.<ref>Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, 2012{{full citation needed|date=July 2022}}</ref> Different to those of ancient Egypt in theme and composition, artefacts of the [[Nubia]]n Kingdom of [[Kerma culture|Kerma]] are characterized by extensive amounts of blue faience, which was developed by the natives of Kerma independently of Egyptian techniques.<ref>Julian Henderson, The Science & Archaeology of Materials, London: ROutledge 200: 54)</ref><ref>W SS, 'Glazed Faience Tiles found at Kerma in the Sudan,' Museum of the Fine Arts, Vol.LX:322, Boston 1962, p. 136</ref><ref>Peter Lacovara, 'Nubian Faience', in ed. Florence D Friendman, Gifts of the Nile - Ancient Egyptian Faience, London: Thames & Hudson, 1998, 46-49)</ref> Examples of ancient faience are also found in [[Minoan civilization|Minoan Crete]], which was likely influenced by Egyptian culture. Faience material, for instance, has been recovered from the [[Knossos]] archaeological site.<ref>C. Michael Hogan, [http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/10854/knossos.html#fieldnotes ''Knossos fieldnotes'', Modern Antiquarian (2007)]</ref>

== Types ==
[[Image:Turkey.Gülşehir004.jpg|thumb|right|Painting a plate before firing in a kiln, [[Gülşehir]], Cappadocia, Turkey]]
Many centres of traditional manufacture are recognized, as well as some individual ''ateliers''. A partial list follows.

===France===
* [[Nevers faience]]
* [[Lyon Faience]]
* [[Rouen manufactory#Rouen faience|Rouen faience]]
* Marseille: [[Veuve Perrin]], [[Gaspard Robert]], [[Joseph Fauchier]], [[Honoré Savy]] and other factories
* [[Quimper faience]]
* [[Niderviller pottery]]
* [[Aprey Faience]]
* Moustiers faience, of the [[Ateliers Clérissy]]
* [[Strasbourg faience]]
* [[Lunéville Faience]]
* [[Gien Faience]], including the [[Faïencerie de Gien]]
* [[Creil-Montereau faience]]
* [[Mesves sur Loire faience]]
* [[Montpellier faience]]
* [[Saint-Porchaire ware]], for comparison

===Italy===
[[File:Putti su delfini-Maioliche di Laterza-SUMO.jpg|thumb |Faience from [[Laterza, Apulia|Laterza]], Italy]]
* [[Faenza ceramics|Faenza faience]]
* [[Maiolica di Laterza|Laterza faience]]
* [[Savona faience]]
* [[Turin faience]]
* [[Lodi ceramics|Lodi faience]]

===Spain===
* [[Manises]] (faience manufactory)
* [[Royal Factory of Alcora faience]]
* [[Royal Factory of La Moncloa]]
* [[Royal Factory of Sargadelos]]
* [[Talavera de la Reina pottery]]

===Germany===
* [[Abtsbessingen faience]]
* [[Hanau faience]] (1661–1810) – first producer in Germany
* [[Nürnberg faience]]
* [[Öttingen–Schrattenhofen faience]]
* [[Poppelsdorf faience]] – Kurfürstliche Fayencerie [[Poppelsdorf]] (1755–1829)
* [[Proskau faience]] – biggest Silesian producer (1763–1853)
* [[Schleswig faience]]
* [[Stockelsdorf faience]] 
* [[Stralsund faience]] (closed 1792)

===England===
[[English delftware]] is a term for English faience, mostly of the 17th and early 18th centuries.  Not all of it imitated Dutch delftware, though much did.  It was replaced by the much better [[creamware]] and other types of refined earthenware [[Staffordshire pottery]] developed in the 18th century, many of which did not need tin-glazes to achieve a white colour.  These were hugely successful and exported to Europe and the Americas.  They are not called "faience" in English, but may be in other languages, e.g. creamware was known as ''faience fine'' in France.

===Denmark===
* [[Aluminia]]
* [[Bing & Grøndahl]]
* [[Kastrup Værk]]
* [[Porcelænshaven]]
* [[Royal Copenhagen]]

===Netherlands===
* [[Boerenbont]]
* [[Delftware]]
* [[Gouda (pottery)]]
* [[De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles|Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles]]
* [[Joannes de Mol|Loosdrechts Porselein]]
* [[Regina (pottery)]]
* [[Royal Tichelaar Makkum|Royal Tichelaar]]
* [[Bertrand Philip, Count of Gronsveld|Weesp Porselein]]

===Norway===
* [[Herrebøe Faience Factory]]
* [[Stavangerflint]]

===Poland===
*{{ill|Belwederan faience|pl|Fajanse belwederskie}}
*{{ill|Wolff and Bernardi faience|pl|Fajanse Wolffa i Bernardiego}}
*{{ill|Włocławek faience|pl|Fajanse włocławskie}}

===Sweden===
* [[Rörstrand]]
'''<big>Austria</big>'''

* Gmunden (pottery)

===Mexico===
* [[Talavera (pottery)]]

===Canada===
* [[Blue Mountain Pottery]]

=== United States ===
* [[California Faience]] (Berkeley)
* [[Ephraim Faience Pottery]]
* [[Herman Carl Mueller]], Mueller Mosaic Company, [[Trenton, New Jersey]]
* [[Lonhuda Pottery Company]]
* [[Weller pottery]]
* Florida Faience, Martin Cushman,  (Mt Plymouth Fl)

==See also==
* [[Clockarium]]
* [[Delftware]]
* [[Lusterware]]
* [[Musée de la Faïence de Marseille]]

==Notes==
<!--This article uses the Cite.php citation mechanism. If you would like more information on how to add references to this article, please see http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cite/Cite.php -->
{{Reflist|2}}

==Bibliography==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071006133828/http://www.rpsgb.org/pdfs/mussheet14.pdf (Royal Pharmaceutical Society) "English Delftware Storage Jars"]
*[http://www.beerstein.net/articles/s9606a.htm German faience beer steins]
*[http://nautarch.tamu.edu/portroyal/tinglaze/index.htm "Tin-glazed earthenware from Port Royal, Jamaica"]{{Dead link|date=July 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Archaeology reveals English, Russian and Dutch wares.
*[http://don-art.ru/ Russian national faience craft]
*[http://faience-shop.ru/ Russian Faience factory]

==External links==
{{commons category|Faience}}
*{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Faience |volume=10 |page=126|short=x}}
* [http://www.faiences-moustiers.com Moustiers France]
* [http://www.gien.com Gien France]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080414160920/http://www.velisantik.ru/ru/kuznetcovskiy-fayans/kuznetcovskiy-fayans-1.html Gallery of Russian faience]

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[[Category:Pottery]]
[[Category:Types of pottery decoration]]