Fashion Plate Fridays: Evening Dress

Here is a late 1830s plate showing a sweet, very pink evening gown. The super-sized sleeves of a few years before have given way to smaller puffs. The description accompanying the plate at Wikimedia Commons reads,

A robe of pink velours épinglé, trimmed round the border with a wreath of leaves in dead gold; a gerbe of them ascends on each side of the front as high as the knee. Corsage drapé trimmed with blond, standing up on each side of the bust. Short sleeves, the lower part moderately full, and arranged in front, and a twisted knot behind; it is ornamented with a wreath of gold leaves, terminated by a red rose with buds and foliage.

But I have one question: what is dead gold?


March 1838 Evening Dress
The World of Fashion