Portuguese Faience and its worldwide distribution

Summary

The project "Portuguese Faience (PF) across the world (16th to 18th centuries )", sponsored by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia aims to study the distribution of PF across the world.

Not that well recognized outside Portugal, the PF production started in middle 16th century in Lisbon and in the early 17th century it was already being made in other workshops across the country.

The huge development of this ware was in part related to Portuguese commercial intensification, namely in its American and Asian colonies. However the characteristics of Portuguese faience, aesthetically similar to Chinese porcelain, made its world circulation increase.

The major trade routes where this pottery circulates have been identified and they run through the Atlantic, North and Central Europe and the Indian Ocean. PF was a commodity that allows inferring about its technical, economical, social, artistic, ideological and symbolic characteristics relatively to its production contexts, trade and consumption.

Cite this Record

Portuguese Faience and its worldwide distribution. Rosa Varela Gomes, Tânia M Casimiro, Mário Varela Gomes. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Leicester, England, U.K. 2013 ( tDAR id: 428549)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -28.549; min lat: 32.638 ; max long: -6.19; max lat: 42.151 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 402