In Lucca he gloried in 'church fronts charged with heavenly sculpture and inlaid with whole histories in marble', but in such a parlous state of decay that he felt obliged to record them.
In the Midas burial chamber, excavators found remains of tables, inlaid wooden screens, bronze and leather belts, bronze cauldrons and other items lying beside the skeleton of the king.
He also does "ivory," in "tusks" cast from petrochemicals. Artisans use it for inlaid guitars, harpsichord keys, baroque recorders.
The show tries to remind us that Greek sculptures were once brightly painted and inlaid, with gleaming weapons, jewellery, and locks of bronze hair.
An elaborately inlaid book stand also recalls the powerful Hurrem, whom the West called Roxelana.
Today Loyall Newell is one of America's leading authorities on pool tables, and one of only a handful in the land able to restore to its original romantic luster one of those heavy old carved and inlaid beauties built more than a century ago.