Egyptians decorated the walls of the underground galleries of the Third Dynasty Djoser funerary complex with faience tiles.

They also made statues, vases, and amulets of faience of different colors. Wall reliefs and decorations as well as furniture pieces were inlaid with colored glass or frit, which is partially fused ground materials used in making glass.

Glass first appeared in the New Kingdom and was made on a core of straw and clay. It was invariable opaque in color. Glass was made from sand (silica dioxide with lime impurities) mixed with an alkali (such as soda ash or natron) and coloring agents (metallic oxides of copper (for green) cobalt (blue), oxides of copper (red), oxide of tin (white), antimony (yellow) and manganese (amethyst).

Vases of polychrome, or multicolored, glass were most probably first produced in Syria. They were gifts from other nations to Egyptian rulers or were exchanged for Egyptian products at the beginning of the New Kingdom.

The Egyptians soon succeeded in making vases of polychrome glass themselves in their workshops. They made them with the same foreign design and with the same technique as those brought from Syria.