, apple-green and other tints were used, not
only for smaller objects of faience, such as rings, scarabs, kohl-pots,
&c., but also for vases, e.g. No. 3965 of the Cairo Museum (Amenophis
III. wine-bottle), the ground colour of which is white with a decoration
of flower wreaths in blue, yellow and red, with an inscription in
delicate blue (6). This polychrome faience was also now used for the
_ushabti_ figures which were placed in the tombs; hitherto they had been
made exclusively of stone or wood, never of glazed stone or pottery;
henceforward they were made exclusively of faience, but the polychrome
glazes (e.g. British Museum, Nos. 34,180, 34,185) were soon abandoned,
and the plain blue and black of the ordinary vases was adopted. The
_ushabtis_ of King Seti I. (British Museum, No. 22,818, &c.) (9) are
fine specimens of this type. Under the XXth Dynasty the blue paled and
became weak in quality, but the priest-king family of the XXIst used for
their _ushabtis_ a most brilliant blue glaze, an extraordinary colour
which at once distinguishes the faience of this period from that of all
others (9). The same brilliant glaze was used for vases of various kinds
as well. The polychrome ware had developed into a style of inlaying with
glazed faience, which we see at Tel el-Amarna under the XVIIIth Dynasty
(1400 B.C.) (10), and at Tel el-Yah[=u]d[=i]ya under the XXth (1200
B.C.), used for wall decoration. After this time polychrome ceramic
decoration seems to have died out in Egypt, but was retained in Asia
(see below).

The technical skill of the New Empire potters is shown by such a
remarkable object as the gigantic _Uas_-sceptre of blue glazed faience,
now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (12, 8). This is the largest known
piece of Egyptian glazed faience; really large vases of faience are not
found. Faience vases were very commonly built up or carved out of a ball
of the dried material, perhaps held together by some mucilaginous
substance --it seems impossible that such a substance could ever have
been fashioned on the wheel. Sometimes even small vases were made of
separately moulded pieces united by a glassy material (6). Under the
XXIInd Dynasty small glazed vases with figures of deities or animals in
relief became common; these were made in moulds (6). In the matter of
form the faience pottery of the New Empire follows the lead of the new
earthenware types. Forms had altered considerably from those of the
XIIth Dynasty.