Originally Posted by Oldpeddaller

.................A long time ago, in a frame shop far far away, some Freddie Grubb (South London) frames were offered in a special finish that sounds just like this. A base coat of white enamelled over with gloss black and treated/heated in some arcane way so that the black split evenly, revealing threads of white between irregular blocks of black. No idea what it was called or how it was done, but I thought it looked amazing. No photos, but it DID happen. An older boy rode one to my school each day. I don't think I even owned a camera back then (1969-72) and I haven't seen one since. It was clearly not a painting accident.

As for terminology, how about "battle-scarred but unbroken"?