Question

what is faience? what was it used for?

Answer 1

Faience is the conventional name in english for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body. It is originally associated by French speakers with wares exported from Faenza in northern Italy.

Answer 2

Answer:

Faience is a varnished non-clay pottery material. They were used as an earthenware.

Explanation:

It is more correctly defined as ‘Egyptian faience', in order to differentiate it from a type of pottery, now known as majolica, which is a tin-glazed that ware made in Faenze in northern Italy from late medieval times onwards.

Since such pottery is unlikely to occur in the same archaeological contexts as Egyptian faience, and since the Italian pottery has now been renamed majolica, it is usual to drop the 'Egyptian' element of the term when referring to the glazed non-clay ceramic.