I was fortunate to spend part of the day in the company of Rick Powell, one time paintshop foreman at the Raleigh Carlton factory, and now working part-time but still enamelling frames. He does most of my frames, but I just tell him what I want, and let him worry about how he achieves that. So today I asked him what the various terms mean, and this is what I remember of his reply.
I have uploaded examples to illustrate what I mean at
http://ntlworld.photobox.co.uk/
Enamel is an opaque paint which dries to a hard shiny finish, usually with the aid of an oven at 250 degrees fahrenheit. It can have additions depending on the desired finish.
Lustre (note the correct English spelling) and Polychromatic are the same thing. The enamel contains aluminium particles, and it can be used over a silver or gold base. (The green Raleigh Lenton Sports)
Flambouyant usually uses a dyed lacquer over a silver base coat, but red flam, and sometimes other darker colours, is over a gold base. It can also be used over a polychromatic base. In the case of a red flam frame with gold head tube and panels, a once popular combination, the whole frame is done gold, the panels masked, and the remainder done with the red lacquer over the gold base. (the red and gold Holdsworth Monsoon)
Metallic is usually an enamel with metallic flakes done over a white base. (the purple and gold Holdsworth La Quelda)
Pearl is an enamel used over a white enamel base. (sorry, I don't have an example)
Candy flip is a dyed lacquer of one colour, over an enamel of another, either or both of which might use metal particles. (the green/blue Pat Rohan track frame)
Clear lacquer is amost always applied over the whole frame after the application of transfers, and then cured in the oven.
He also mentioned smoked, crackled, and finishes over chrome or other plating.
There are obviously endless combinations possible, governed only by the imagination.
Perhaps someone can now translate these terms into US terminology.
Peter Brown, Lincolnshire, England.