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What is Faience Earthenware?
By admin | February 15, 2009
Faience is an earthenware featuring a tin-enameled (stanniferous) glaze. The glaze produces an opaque white surface.
In the traditional manner of producing ceramic items, a clay vessel would first be fired to create the fired product – an unglazed fired product can be called biscuit or bisque. For Faience earthenware, the undecorated biscuit was then painted or dipped in the tin-enamel glazing mixture, dried, decorated with hand painted metallic oxides, and fired a second time.
Common design colors were blue, yellow, orange, and green. The fabric of faience is soft and typically pale yellow to salmon in color.
Tin-enameled glaze wares are known by different names generally depending on their country of origin. Material produced in France and Italy is known as faience, material from Spain is labeled majolica, and objects from England and Holland are referred to as delft.
First introduced in the sixteenth century, faience had become uncommon by the end of the eighteenth century. Popularity of Faience earthenware resurged in the 1850’s and continued through the turn of the twentieth century for what is called Victorian majolica. Limited production of faience, majolica, and delft continues through the present.
Topics: Dinnerware information, earthenware | No Comments »