The manufacturing technique of pharaonic faience has been studied extensively in the past. However, stylistic and technological changes took place with Egyptian faience produced in the Ptolemaic Period (330 B.C.–30 B.C.). Very few faience samples of this period have been analyzed, and their methods of manufacture are not well known. The aim of this study was to characterize the materials and methods of manufacture of a group of low-relief and bicolored faience vessels in the Walters Art Gallery:A total of 21 vessels and vessel fragments were studied. A number of analytical techniques were employed: stereomicroscopy, xeroradiography, energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy, including both wavelength and energy dispersive spectrometry. The research results aided in the identification of body types and glazes used during production and in the determination of the fabrication techniques employed. Significant was the discovery of the use of lead-alkaline glaze on a quartz faience body. The results suggest that Ptolemaic faience may have been the earliest known example of intentional lead-alkaline glaze used in antiquity:
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Yunhui Mao (2000) studied this question.
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