mastercraftn.

1707 G. Hickes Two Treat. Pref. p. lxiii There is no more..Priestcraft in the Clergy..than Master-craft in the Father of a Family.

1858 J. D. Burns Vision of Prophecy (ed. 2) 161 Rich the tracery of each lattice, carven sharp with master-craft, And the mouldings wrought like lace-work on each tall and slender shaft.

1891 E. Arnold Light of World iii. 126 'Twas an Egyptian labour, cut with pains From the streaked stone, and wrought, as thou shalt see, By matchless master-craft, to make a gift For Cæsar.

1839 W. H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard I. i. 14 Of all crafts,—and it was the only craft his poor father, who, to do him justice, was one of the best workmen that ever handled a saw or drove a nail, could never understand,—of all crafts, I say, to be an honest man is the master-craft.

1925 N. S. B. Gras Hist. Agric. Europe & Amer. iii. xiii. 327 Some in America would regard the dairy industry as the master craft in animal husbandry. A larger yield per unit of food comes from the milking cow than from a cow fed for beef.