That Nicolas Amati would by any possibility neglect to duly initiate his favourite pupil in the mysteries and secrecies whereby his work should receive its final crowning adornment, its envelopment in the thin film of glory, is not to be thought of. The lustrous solution that was so fitting an accompaniment to the dainty designs of the Amatis, was from the first handled with a masterly dexterity and perfect knowledge by Stradivari. Most of the early work is covered with the orange or amber colour that were the prevailing tints on the early productions of the brothers Amati as well as Nicolas. It is somewhat curious that most of the prominent varnishers among the liutaros of Italy seemed to prefer this in their early days: or was it that the deeper or more intense colours required longer experience in management? Anyhow, so it was, and Stradivari seems to have been no exception to the general rule. If a well preserved early Stradivari is placed side by side with one of "the brothers" or Nicolas Amati's amber coloured specimens, the varnish enveloping them will be seen to be precisely alike, whether considered in respect of transparency, consistency or thickness. Here is art indication that for the best part of a century, these clever artificers of Cremona had the same stuff, used it in precisely the same manner, to a hair's breadth, for they knew there was no going beyond it; every part of the process was methodically carried out in compliance with certain laws known to, or instituted by, previous masters. There is an old Latin motto implying that "the perfection of art is to conceal art";--it it has often been quoted in illustrative reference, sometimes with sly humour, at others in most serious vein, for instance, when an eminent judge's judicial wig was known to have beneath it another of equally natural pretentions, and when quoted as the motto for the year in a Royal Academy catalogue, to be interpreted by the noble army of "rejected outsiders" as meaning extra efforts that year by the Council at concealment or suppression of art that was superior to their own.