faience

See also: faïence

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French faïence, named after the city of Faenza, Italy, where it was made in the 16th century.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfaɪ.əns/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪəns

Noun

faience (countable and uncountable, plural faiences)

  1. A type of tin-glazed earthenware ceramic, used domestically for tableware and in architecture as a decorative material.
    • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
      The smile, you see, is perfect—wonderful / As mere Faience! a table ornament / To suit the richest mounting.
    • 1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC:
      If she had wondered what Mrs. Burrage wished so particularly to talk about, she waited some time for the clearing-up of the mystery. During this interval she sat in a remarkably pretty boudoir, where there were flowers and faiences and little French pictures, and watched her hostess revolve round the subject in circles the vagueness of which she tried to dissimulate.
    • 1907, Edwin Atlee Barber, Tin Enamelled Pottery Maiolica, Delft and other Stanniferous Faience, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, page 6:
      The word Majolica, or Maiolica […] was applied to all Stanniferous faience of Italy and Spain.
    • 2023 December 13, Robin Leleux, “Restored... and a richly deserved award: Findlater's Corner”, in RAIL, number 998, page 43:
      The white faience façade, the glazed Doultonware Carrera marble, was made locally. And being glazed, it was impervious to London's sooty atmosphere, enabling easier cleaning.
  2. (archaeology) Beads or small ornaments made from frit, from the eastern Mediterranean of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
    • 1898, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter IV, in Elissa […] ‎[1]:
      Beneath these booths were spread their goods; silks from Cos, bronze weapons and copper rods, or ingots from the rich mines of Cyprus, linens and muslins from Egypt; beads, idols, carven bowls, knives, glass ware, pottery in all shapes, and charms made of glazed faience or Egyptian stone; […] .

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