EGYPTIAN FAIENCE

What is Faience

Egyptian Faience is a form of ceramic that today is found mostly in private collections or museums dedicated to Ancient Egypt. Traditionally it can be found in the region of the Mediterranean, near East and Egypt. It was much used by the Ancient Egyptians and is today acknowledge as the first “high-tech ceramic” to have existed.

The name faience comes from a tin-glazed earthenware found in Ferenze, Northern Italy in the late medieval period. Today this type of earthenware is called majolica. Egyptian Faience was used for the same sort of things earthenware would be used for and bore a resemblance to majolica in that both have glazes that make them look shiny. Infact the Egyptian’s called faience thenet which derived from the words for dazzling or shinning.

How is Faience made

The Egyptian faience differed from tin-glazed earthenware in that it is a non-clay form of ceramic. Its three basic ingredients are

 Silica from sand (quartz)

 Lime-calcium hydroxide

 Plant ash or natron (salt)

It usually has a soda-lime silica glaze which is bright blue-green due to the presence of copper.

By nature Faience is thixotropic. This means that the mixture starts off as thick and then becomes soft and eventually fluid enough to flow when worked with.

Ways of Glazing Faience

There were three basic ways of glazing faience

 Efflorescence

This is also called self-glazing. This was the most common form of glazing for Faience . The glaze appeared when the salts in the Faience came to the surface as it dried and formed a crust. When fired the crusty layer melted and fused with the quartz and lime in the Faience. The glaze would always be thickest were the Faience had dried the most.

 Cementing

This is also called the qom technique after an Iranian village where it was first discovered. The dry Faience is buried in a glazing powder made from silica, charcoal, lime, ash and colorant. When heated the powder partially melts and chemically reacts with the quartz in the Faience. With this technique the glaze tends to be thin but even and can be seen clearly as a layer on top of the Faience.

 Application

An application of quartz, lime and natron is either painted on to the surface of the Faience or the Faience is dipped into it, which then melts on firing. This technique gives a thick glaze and cannot be so easily seen as a distinct layer on top of the Faience .

Categories of Faience

 Ordinary

 Variant A-has an extra layer between the core and the glaze.

 Variant B-Black which is rare.

 Variant C-Red

 Variant D-Hard blue or green body.

 Variant E-glassy Faience which is not true Faience but a form of glass.

Use of Faience

 PREDYNASTIC PERIOD

Beads made of Faience have been found in predynastic jewellery.

 EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD-OLD KINGDOM

Votive figurines made of Faience in the form of animals and humans were first seen.

36000 glazed Faience tiles, threaded with copper wire and set into plaster can be seen in the Djoser step pyramid. A small sample of these tiles can be seen in Swansea University’s Egyptian Centre.

MIDDLE KINGDOM

 Faience production increased. Faience became harder and the glazing more durable and brighter.

 For the first time Faience objects were seen where the Faience had been wrapped around a central core of straw when fired. This produced hollow Faience figurines such as hedgehogs or small medicinal jars that were often in the shape of hedgehogs.

 Female fertility figurines and amulets were also found made of Faience at this time. Offering trays of Faience were also found with Faience models of various food and drink.

 In the 12th and 13th dynasties Faience models of hippopotamus were found in coffins surrounding the body. It is believed that these represented the revitalization of the Nile, rebirth and/or the God Seth.

 Many Faience vessels were found with thick walls and were highly decorated on the outside.

By the end of the Second intermediate period which followed the middle kingdom Faience production was almost fully developed.

NEW KINGDOM

 The Victorian Flanders Petrie found several workshops for Faience production in Armana (known originally as Akhetaten).

 Thousands of clay moulds were found for creating Faience ring bezels and amulets.

 Commemorative scarabs made of Faience were seen at this time.

 Faience tiles were found on the walls of palaces at Malkata, Armana and Qantir.

 Often the glass workshops were found near the Faience workshops.

 Glass was added to Faience which provided a greater range of colourings to the Faience .

 Faience was used as an inlay for small objects.

 Egypt exported Faience objects to the near East and various Mediterranean countries.

In the third intermediated period following the New Kingdom Faience chalices were common. A large number of Faience shabtis were found, turquoise blue with black inscriptions.

THE LATE PERIOD

 New developments in Faience were seen.

 Apple green shabtis, votive offerings and pilgrim flasks made from Faience were seen for the first time.

 Black glaze was produced by manipulating the atmosphere in the kiln.

 Matt Faience was preferred to glazed.

 Mass production of shabtis made out of Faience in moulds were seen. These were inscribed with hieroglyphs rather than painted on.

 “New Year flasks” were exported by Egypt to many countries around the Mediterranean.

 The first clear evidence of Faience kilns were found in Memphis. These however were dated to the Roman times.

The Making of Faience Objects

When the Faience mixture was made it would either be shaped by hand or pressed or poured into a mould. It could also be wrapped around a shaped core made from straw or other material which would give the finished product a hollow centre. This was done when making beads by wrapping Faience around a reed, which would then disintegrate when the Faience object was fired.

Once the object was formed into the desired shape it would be place in a very hot kiln for firing. Glaze of different colours would then be added once the object had cooled.

The Relgious Significance of Faience

Turquoise and Lapis Lazuli were considered important because their colour was associated with the constantly rejuvenating Nile River and through this the Gods. Faience is thought to be a substitute for these semi-precious stones and so had a connection with re-birth and the Gods.

The Goddess Hathor was known as the Lady of Turquoise or the Lady of Faience . She was the Goddess of love, music, dance and drink.

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