fa ahN s', imitation porcelain, a kind of fine pottery, superior to the common pottery in its glazing, beauty of form and richness of painting. It derived its name from the town of Faenza, in Italy, where a fine sort of pottery, called majolica, was manufactured as early as the fourteenth century. The modern faience appears to have been invented about the middle of the sixteenth century, at Faenza, as an imitation of majolica. True faience is made of a yellowish earth, covered with an enamel which is usually white, but may be colored. See MAJOLICA; POTTERY.