stephani stephenson on mon 8 jan 07
i say mah-yah-le-ka (though i don't draw it out long
lie it looks phonetiically)
I do that because in Spanish or Italian the J sound
would be a soft 'yuh' sound instead of a harsh djuh
sound...
as in the island of Majorca has the soft sound in
pronunciation. so the y sound doesn't come from
superior teacup pinky positioning, it is just a
familiarity with Spanish. so .if i err i err that way.
That's just my personal approach to it.
now ,I am typing on the road with no references handy,
so there may be some innacuracies in the following,
but , as to majolica and faience.
The term majolica comes from reference to the island
of Majorca,where the Italians picked up on the
Moorish/Spanish traditions of opaque white tin glazed(
and accompanying polychrome decorated )earthenware .
This tradition had even earlier roots in Persia and
near/Middle East and through North africa on the way
to Andalusia..... and I'll leave it to others to
expound on the finer points of those origins..
but, from Moorish Occupied Spain to post Moorish(
Mudejar ) Spain to Italy it travelled via S. Spain to
Majorca , then on to Florence , where it had n
Italian blossoming. Florence as we call it , is of
course, the city of Faenza, in Italian... and here
is the root of the term Faeince.
It seems to me that the name of the Italian work,
references Majorca and becomes Majollica/maioloca.
now i have seen reference to the French version of
this type of glazed pottery named 'faience'..so
perhaps the French version still references the
italian source, Faenza....
so in this regard majolica and faience can refer to
two pots which look a lot alike and are in the same
tradition, which has moved geographically , culturally
and over time, so it is udertandible that it's name
would change as well.
Then i think it gets more dilute. for
example..'faience ' has also been used to describe
decorative architectural trim, etc. and does not
necesarrily refer to a majolica -like ware. "Grueby
faience company" for example...
late 19th century tile companies used the term to
refer to wet clay derived(rather than dust pressed)
architectural components which were not necessarily
tin glazed or polychrome painted over the tin
glaze....
yet now, this is also a historical term so we have to
honor it even if it had nothing to do with other
types of ceramic ware clled 'faience'
as i say my details may need some adjusting , but
basically , you will find these terms have been
applied differently in different eras and regions, so
i think , rather than try to determine which is the
one true way, it is better to understand the different
versions...
it is confusing though, because you do encounter
refernces which do not differentiate.
for exmple i had never heard of the difference in
pronunciation between colllectors and potters.
What I do is go to the soft sound in majolica when i
pronounce it and when i see it printed with a y an i
or a j in the middle of the printed word i don't lose
much sleep over it....
but i continue to read the material on it and the
posts becasue i too would like to reduce rather than
contribute to the confusion
Stephani
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