Origin and Development of French Faience: The Contribution of Archaeology and the Physical Sciences
Résumé
French tin-glazed earthenware, or faience, is commonly
found during excavations in mainland North America,
where it is usually identified using morpho-stylistic typologies based on regional styles. Since the 1970s, development
of the archaeology of French production sites and of a
well-crafted archaeometric methodology has led to a better understanding of the specific technical characteristics
of this type of earthenware. Using control samples from
faience factory dumps, many traditional attributions have
been revised and some historical interpretations have been
reviewed. Such advances are particularly important for
material culture studies in former French colonial areas.