Barbotine, faience or majolica: what is the difference?

Anyone buying vintage French tableware runs into the same three words again and again: barbotine, faience and majolica. They are often used interchangeably, sellers included. Yet they do not mean the same thing. Here is the difference, in plain language.

Faience: the basis

Faience is earthenware that has been fired and then covered with an opaque, usually white tin glaze. That white surface could be painted on. It is more porous and softer than porcelain, and you can hear it: a duller tap rather than a clear ring.

The word comes from Faenza, the Italian town. In France, Quimper, Sarreguemines, Gien and Lunéville are the best known names. Faience, then, is the material, not the decoration.

Barbotine: the technique

Barbotine is liquid clay, roughly the thickness of yoghurt. It was used to build up relief: flowers, leaves, shells, asparagus. Coloured glaze went over the top.

Barbotine is therefore a technique, not a material. You recognise it with your fingers: you feel the relief, and the glaze lies thicker in the hollows, so the colour is darker there. On French oyster plates and asparagus plates this is the classic execution.

Majolica: the same thing, but in English

Majolica is largely the English word for what the French call barbotine: earthenware with relief and colourful lead glazes, popular from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards. Confusingly, in Italy maiolica means painted tin glaze instead, which is precisely what we call faience.

Put briefly: if you hear majolica used of a French oyster plate with relief, barbotine is what is meant.

How do you recognise it in the shop?

• Run your hand over the decoration. Relief under your fingers means barbotine or majolica
• Look at the colour down in the hollows. If it is darker, the glaze has run into them
• Look at the underside. Unglazed, sandy in colour and slightly rough points to earthenware, not porcelain
• Look for the maker's mark. Often stamped or impressed, sometimes with a model number alongside
• Crazing, that fine network of hairline cracks in the glaze, belongs to old faience and is not damage

Can you use it?

Yes, with a little common sense. Earthenware is porous, so do not leave it standing in water for hours and do not put it in the microwave if it has a metallic sheen. Washing by hand is safest. For cold dishes, oysters, tapas, cheese and fruit it is perfect.

How we judge and describe condition is set out on vintage condition.

Have a look

Browse the vintage French tableware, the oyster plates in barbotine or the cheese boards. And do read Oysters the French way as well.