Blue & Black Faience Ancient Egyptian Ushapti. Blue and Black Faience late period circa 600 BC. Fine faience Ushabti with great face details. EU- 19 JBird Ushapti a-c. Provenance: ex Canadian Collection, ex Julian Bird Collection of Ushaptis (extensive) collected between 1970-2012 sold by Hansons (11 February 2019) #204. Julia at Tetragon (08/20/2022) In ancient Egypt, objects created with faience were considered magical, filled with the undying shimmer of the sun, and imbued with the powers of rebirth. For Egyptians, the sculptures, vessels, jewelry, and ritual objects made of faience glimmered with the brilliance of eternity. While faience is made of common materials—quartz, alkaline salts, lime, and mineral-based colorants—it maintained important status among precious stones and metals. Faience may have been developed to simulate highly prized and rare semi-precious blue stones like turquoise. This man-made substance allowed the Egyptians to make a wide variety of objects covered in shiny, bright blue glaze—a color that was closely linked with fertility, life, and the gleaming qualities of the sun. In archaeology, the word is used to refer to Egyptian artifacts made of (or covered with) a non-clay-based ceramic substance with a shiny surface. Egyptian faience was used for jewelry or other small items rather than to cover pottery vessels. Some art historians liken the shiny effects preferred by Egyptian faience artisans to those of colored glass. Egyptians seem to have valued faience for its potential resemblance to rare and valuable stones, particularly lapis lazuli, a semi-precious gem stone. The underlying material used in Egyptian faience was silica (in ground quartz and other sand), combined with lime (calcium carbonate derived from burnt limestone) or potash. To this was added a water-soluble alkaline, like sodium bicarbonate. When such a combination is mixed with water, it forms a kind of volatile mud. It has little ability to hold together, and was typically poured or pushed into molds, although skillful artisans could sometimes model it. Coloring material was usually added. Blue could be made by adding blue or blue-green copper oxide. The result was close to the blue-green color of the semi-precious lapis lazuli, and small pieces may even have been passed off as lapis in some circles. Probably because of the association with lapis, most Egyptian faience was made in this color. Size: 1 1/4 x 3/4 x 3 1/4 in. #5201 #AE1