Books › The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933 › scan 140
Scan 140
The Belle Skinner collection of old musical instruments, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1933
13 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. Printed page 122. See the scan on archive.org.
1No. 50
3POCHETTE
5FRENCH
6SEVENTEENTH OR EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
8The entire instrument is made of one piece of maple, with fluted body inlaid with narrow lines of ivory. At the end is carved a winged angel's head. The peg-box with four tuning pegs is carved at the back with acanthus leaves, a face and shield, and is crested by a carved head. The ebony finger-board and tail-piece are edged with dentils of ebony and hollywood. There are two long C holes.
10Praetorius, in his Theatrum Instrumentorum, shows the instruments in use in the seventeenth century. In Table XXI are illustrations of stringed instruments, among them sordinos, "Kleine Poschen, Geigen ein Octav höher." No. 1 is more of the rebec shape and No. 2 is the linterculus shape, similar to the one described here. Other references to the pochette are found in Rowbotham (p. 157), who quotes from a Bodleian manuscript the accomplishments of the jongleur who can play, among other instruments, "the little gigue that chirps up on high," probably an early form of the pochette.
12Length, 1 ft. 5½ in.; width, 1½ in.; extreme depth, 1¾ in.
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