Faience

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

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.

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.

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