A polished stone returns light in one direction. An unpolished one scatters it in every direction, including directions the person looking at it would rather not see. Both are finished surfaces. Only one of them is a mirror.
The Terra plates
The Terra collection sets stones with their tool marks still on them, held against gold finished to a shine. It is a deliberate ugliness. The eye reads the mirror first, then keeps returning to the raw face, because raw faces carry information and mirrors do not.
It also ages differently. A mirror goes dull in a specific, predictable way. A raw face goes dull irregularly, and no two examples ever end up in the same state. The house considers this the better outcome.
