Faience is a glazed non-clay ceramic material. It is composed mainly of crushed quartz or sand, with small amounts of lime and either natron or plant ash. This body is coated with a soda-lime-silica glaze that is generally a bright blue-green colour due the presence of copper (Nicholson 1998: 50).

The term faience is used for objects made entirely from the glazed material, as distinct from
glazed stone or glazed ware i.e. objects with a coating of glaze.

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