Nano-structures are not an invention of the 20th century. In Middle Age already, craftsmen were able to produce multi-layer structures of nano-particles at the surface of potteries creating lustres, this means potteries with shining effects. In order to study the optical properties of these objects and because, as a part of our patrimony, they cannot be destroyed, we decided to reproduce the structures observed by co-sputtering. Developing a model, we were able to predict the reflection spectrum of the created samples with a good accuracy, validating it. However, this work is a first experimental step and improvements are needed from both theoretical and experimental sides in order to understand fully the optical properties of the lustres. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.