Books › The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933 › scan 139
Scan 139
The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933
19 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 121. See the scan on archive.org.
1No. 49
3POCHETTE
5ITALIAN
6SEVENTEENTH OR EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
8The body of the pochette is covered with strips of ebony and ivory, laid in a rhomboid pattern, separated by fine lines of ivory. The ebony neck is also inlaid with ivory lines and is enriched at the base with mother-of-pearl. The ebony peg-box, holding four pegs, terminates in the head of a lion. The ebony finger-board, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, is edged with fine ivory and ebony lines and the ivory tail-piece is delicately carved. At the lower end of the finger-board is a mother-of-pearl oval engraved with the monogram: A.R. With this pochette is a miniature rosewood bow with ivory button.
10An illustration of this little instrument appears in the catalogue of Georges Samary, Paris, and is described in the bill of sale, Sept. 5, 1919, as follows:
12"Une Pochette, forme gondole, à damiers en ivoire et ébène. Cordier ivoire incrusté, touche incrustée de nacre. Tête de lion sculptée. Epoque du 17e Siècle."
14Praetorius (p. 48) says that the kit—in this case probably the older form—was tuned an octave higher than the ordinary violin and that it was sometimes strung with brass or steel strings, which gave a particularly sweet sound, "dass wenn sie mit Messings und Stälenen Saiten bezogen werden, ein stillen und fast lieblichen Resonanz mehr als die andern von sich geben." (See Praetorius, Theatrum Instrumentorum, Plates XVI and XXI).
16Monteverde used in his orchestra two little violins à la française, or pochettes, indicating that, small as they were, they must still have possessed some degree of power and sweetness of tone. (See Singleton, p. 143).
18Length, 1 ft. 7 7/8 in.; extreme width, 1 1/2 in.; depth, 1 in.
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