FAIENCE, firliNe (Fr. from It. faenza, faience, for porcelluna di Faenza, earthenware of Faenza, a city of Italy, where the ware is said to have been invented). Properly an earth enware of coarse fabric, covered with an opaque enamel upon which decoration may be applied in vitrifiable paint, and fired. The proc ess of manufacture includes three wholly distinct operations, the molding and firing of the original clay. often not more delicate than a cheap flower pot; the covering with enamel, which is often done by mere dipping, and the firing of this; and finally the decoration, which is often of the great est refinement in the way of delicate flower pat terns and even figure subjects. It appears, then, that the famous majolica (q.v.) is a variety of faience in the English sense; while stoneware, long known as faience Henri Deux and later as fuienee Saint PO r Ch aire (q.v.), is not properly faience in the English sense; while stoneware, porcelain, and all wares that are not covered all over with a thick enamel, including those deco rated with slip, and all the varieties of Greek vases and Japanese hard, yellow pottery with crackled glaze, are excluded from this branch of ceramic ware. On the other band, tiles and bricks, of which the surface is intended to be shown as covered with an opaque material upon which alone the painting is applied, as in the monuments of the early Persian kingdoms, in many of those of Egypt, and in the splendid tiles which sheathe and line the walls of mosques in Cairo and Damascus. are faience in the strictest sense. The wares to which the term is most com monly applied in the language of students of pottery are the French pieces of the sixteenth. seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. These are especially the manufacture of Rouen, which as early as 1520 was turning out tiles of great beauty, including frequently painting in figure subjects and in those curiously emblematic com positions which were the delight of designers of that time. These wares were sometimes plain white and blue, and are then of extreme beauty, not closely copied from Chinese originals, like the delft pieces which are named below, but de signed with great freshness and novelty in the spirit of the French Renaissance, but bold and graceful. At, a later time deep red was intro
duced, so that the three colors, red, bine, and white, were somewhat easily balanced in the com position, which was in a few cases relieved by gold. These pieces were made for table use even in the wealthiest families, and during the wars of Louis XIV.'s reign, when it became fashionable to send silverware to the mint, splendid services were made for the royal establishment at Ver sailles and for the nobles of the Court. The ex clusive taste for this ware disappeared at the time of the discovery of what is called soft porcelain at the close of the eighteenth century: but the factories flourished down to the end of the eighteenth century, and left their traces in the peasant potteries of the CeVenne': and the south. In the mountain regions of Italy very interesting faience is still made by village pot ters on good old lines of decoration.
One of these famous wares is that of Nevers, which is marked by a much freer use of land scope designs than that of Rouen, and, when the composition is not actually pictorial, by a much legs restricted and carefully designed style of ornamentation, as if copied from the most elaborate designs for brocade. The factory seems to have been established about 1550, and it flourished as late as that of Rouen, though it was never equally extensive. The vases and dishes of Noustiers are famous for their ex quisite decoration in conventional flowers ar ranged in scrolls and festoons, these last being the especial mark of the richer pieces. There are also splendid pieces with coats of arms and a conventional decoration of great solidity and dig nity, reminding the student of the finest ware of Rouen. The first manufactory was established at Alonstiers-Sainte-Marie in Provence about 164i). There are famous wares which were made in Alsace, at Strassburg, and Niederweiler, and also at Alarseilles, where realistic flowers of large size were painted on plates and dishes in a most effective way. Luncvil1e and Saint-Clement in Lorraine, Rennes in Brittany, Lille, and Valen ciennes in the extreme north of France, Lyons, and, in the neighborhood of Paris, Seeaux, Sevres, Alontereau, and many other places, were famous throughout this epoch.