Pochette
Alternate name(s)
- Kit
- Dancing master's fiddle
Date1650-1700 ca.
Place MadeFrance, Europe
Serial No.none
SignednoneMarkingsnone
DescriptionThis boat-shaped pochette, a portable instrument for use by a dancing master, has a body made from ivory with a fingerboard veneered in tortoiseshell. The luxury materials suggest that this was an expensive instrument.
Top: one-piece, quarter-cut spruce: very narrow grain; early patch under treble bridge foot to repair wood flaw or damage
Back, sides, neck, and head: one-piece ivory; five facets on back divided by ridges; head scroll with hole drilled toward back for suspension via fibrous thread or rope
Purfling: none
Varnish: clear on top
Fingerboard: softwood veneered with tortoise shell on face and ebony on sides; wedge-shaped
Nut: ebony
Tailpiece: poplar or willow veneered with tortoise shell; stained black on underside; score marks visible on surface of wood through tortoise shell; tailgut passes through holes drilled in face
Tailgut: plain gut
Pegs: four ebony; concave outer head outline
Saddle: ebony; set into top
Endpin: ebony
Soundholes: elongated c-shape with notches on outside only
Bridge: bone; later
DimensionsTotal length: 357 mm
Total length without endpin: 353 mm
Top length: 228 mm
Top width: 26-37 mm
Rib height: 9-21 mm
Stop length: 142 mm
Vibrating string length: 218 mm
Neck length (bottom of nut to ribs): 74 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1985 from Bernhard von Hünerbein, Cologne, Germany.
Published ReferencesAndré P. Larson, The National Music Museum: A Pictorial Souvenir (Vermillion: National Music Museum, 1988), p. 53.
Credit LineRawlins Fund, 1985
Object number03591
On View
Not on view
1680-1730 ca.
1650-1700 ca.
