La faïence
Hi everyone! I’m a French student from the École du Louvre in Paris. My school was founded by the French Ministry of Culture and is located within the Louvre Palace. It trains future art historians, museum curators, and heritage specialists. During our undergraduate studies, we explore the history of art from different regions of the world through a chronological approach. I chose to take part in this archaeological field school to discover an important chapter of both French and Michigan history. While excavating the site, we uncovered several ceramic fragments, including pieces of faience, a type of fine earthenware produced generally during the eighteenth century. The word faience comes from the Italian town of Faenza, where this ceramic technique became famous throughout Europe. However, the technique itself was first developed in Samarra, Iraq, by Abbasid potters (750–1258), who sought to reproduce the brilliant white appearance of Chinese monochrome stoneware¹ To achieve thi...
