Note O — Chapter XV · VARNISH AND TONE

In the Correspondence Department of The Strad for May, 1916, we find the following: “I think his (Stradivari’s) varnish was purely and simply got by a visit to his fowl-shed, and the selection of half a dozen brown-shelled eggs therefrom, simply breaking in a dish, beating the contents well together, removing the froth, and applying the residuum at once to his finished violins.... I believe this is the long-sought solution of the means employed by Strad to finish off his violins.”