Faience

Faience pottery is tin-glazed pottery. It is the use of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration. This is got by adding an oxide of tin to a lead glaze.

Modern bowl in a traditional pattern, made in Faenza, Italy, which gave its name to the type.

It was a major advance in the history of pottery, made about 500 years ago. The technique was brought to Al-Andalus in Spain from Moorish potteries in the eastern Mediterranean.

In Italy locally produced tin-glazed earthenwares was called maiolica. It reached a peak in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.^[1]

It was made in several countries. English creamware was developed in Staffordshire in the 18th century. Instead of faience they were called delftware.