Also 8 fayance, 8–9 fayence. [a. Fr. faïence, prob. an appellative use of the proper name † Fayence, Faenza in Italy, one of the chief seats of ceramic industry in 16th c.] ‘A general term comprising all the various kinds of glazed earthenware and porcelain’ (Fairholt).
1714. Fr. Bk. of Rates, 152. All Fayances, or Earthen-Ware imported, should pay 20 Livres per 100 Weight.
1762. 71. H. Walpole, Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786), IV. 28. Roman fayence, called Raphael’s earthen-ware.
1835. Marryat, Olla Podr., xiii. Every article of fayence.
1879. J. J. Young, Ceram. Art, 41–2. They form an exaggerated estimate of Oriental processes, and seek to equal the wonderful coloring of the faience of Persia or Rhodes.
attrib. 1883. W. H. Bishop, Across Arizona, in Harper’s Mag., LXVI. March, 504/2. A Henri II. faience candlestick might give a certain idea of the fashion of the interior columns [of San Xavier del Bac].
