A dense pure white tin glaze decorated in intricate and often highly coloured designs
The work referred to in Europe as faience is ceramic tableware, also called delft in the UK and the Netherlands and (particularly in early forms) majolica in Italy. The opaque white results from the addition of tin oxide to a lead glaze. Egyptian faience is distinct. It is also a form of glazed ceramic, but as amulets, beads, a broach or a figurine, with a high colour and glassy appearance; the substance of which it is made is quartz or sand crystals ground together with various amounts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and copper oxide. This process is thought to have been first developed in ancient Mesopotamia.
