Faience or faïence (/faɪˈɒ̃s/ or /feɪˈɑːns/, French: [fajɑ̃s]) is the conventional name in English for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff earthenware body, originally associated with Faenza in northern Italy. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major advance in the history of pottery. The invention seems to have been made in Iran or the Middle East before the ninth century. A kiln capable of producing temperatures exceeding 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) was required to achieve this result, the result of millennia of refined pottery-making traditions. The term is now used for a wide variety of pottery from several parts of the world, including many types of European painted wares, often produced as cheaper versions of porcelain styles.
Technically, lead-glazed earthenware, such as the French sixteenth-century Saint-Porchaire ware, does not properly qualify as faience, but the distinction is not usually maintained.
Moustiers-Sainte-Marie, or simply Moustiers, (Mostiers Santa Maria in Occitan) is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France, a part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and one of the "Most beautiful villages of France".
It lies at the western entrance to the Gorges du Verdon. The village has been a centre of the pottery trade, especially faïence, for centuries.
The village clings a hundred or so metres up the side of a limestone cliff. A spring flows out of the cliff, creating a waterfall directly out of the centre of town. At twilight, the sun strikes the south-facing cliff, creating a diffuse pink light for a few minutes on clear days.