Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment 9th century This earthenware tile was covered with a white glaze, fired, painted with metallic pigments in three colors, re-fired, and then polished. Designers of Abbasid period put this new glazing technology, known as luster painting, to innovative use at Samarra to replicate the sheen and mottling of semiprecious stones using locally available materials.. Polychrome Luster Tile Fragment. 9th century. Earthenware; polychrome luster-painted on opaque white glaze. Excavated in Iraq, Samarra. Ceramics-Tiles