faience

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.
   • The smile, you see, is perfect—wonderful / As mere Faience! a table ornament / To suit the richest mounting.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...
   • 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...1885–1886, Henry James, The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC
2. Beads or small ornaments made from frit, from the eastern Mediterranean of the Bronze and Iron Ages.
   • 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; […].1898, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter IV, in Elissa […]