It was unburnished gray - aluminum or magnesium, by its light weight - and smoothly streamlined.
The inventory of 1700 describes 'its wooden frame gilded with unburnished gold'.
It was not calculation but humility - together with his understanding that it is preferable not to rust unburnished but to shine in use - that gave him another lease on life.
In northern European paintings matt, unburnished gilding is also found and contracts may specify which areas are to be burnished and which are to be matt.
Nymphs and satyrs in Florentine bronze smirked and capered in the recesses of the pale gray wall, relieved by mouldings and medallions in unburnished gold.