Books › The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933 › scan 138
Scan 138
The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933
13 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 120. See the scan on archive.org.
1from the viol form by the neck, which was a prolongation of the body of the instrument instead of an attachment to it. It was also known as the "gigue." He confirms the statement that the diminutive viol, known as the dancing master's kit, replaced the rebec kit or sordino at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and Grove speaks of the Pochette and Sordino as names used, in France and Italy respectively, for a small, boat-shaped instrument of which the Latin name is linterculus, from the word linter, meaning a small boat. This would seem to stamp with authority the terms, Sordino and Pochette, used for the boat-shaped instrument which came into vogue in France about the time of Louis XIII.
3This sordino, the most unusual one in this collection, was made by the great Stradivarius. The back of the little instrument is made entirely of carved ivory; at the top a lion's head and below, in the center, the charming figure of an elaborately dressed woman holding castanets in her hands. The sides are varnished black and the sound-board has long C holes and one line of purfling. There is a plain tail-piece of ivory and finger-board of ebony. The neck is made of curly maple and the peg-box terminates in the head of a satyr, with acanthus leaf carvings extending down the back of the peg-box. Below is a collector's profile seal in red sealing wax. There are four strings.
5In the sound-box, slightly torn, is the label:
7Per suo amico Fanti
8….. Stradivari 1690
10Engel says (p. 341), "About three hundred years ago the sordino was kept by gentlemen in a little case resembling a pen-case, which they put in the pocket when they went to a singing party; and they used the instrument for insuring correct intonation while singing madrigals and catches."
12Extreme length, 1 ft. 4 in.; length of body, 6 3/4 in.; depth of body, 1 1/16 in.; extreme width of body, 2 in.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.