Pochette thumbnail 1
Pochette thumbnail 2
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Image of Gallery in South Kensington
Not currently on display at the V&A
On display at the Horniman Museum, London

Pochette

about 1680 (Made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

A small, boat-shaped violin, known by the French term pochette, was suitable for carrying around in a coat pocket. They were played by dancing masters before demonstrating a particular step to their pupils. However, this example is made from expensive decorative materials, and it may have been intended as a collector's curiosity rather than as a working instrument.

On loan to the Horniman Museum.


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Fruitwood and bone back; planed pine soundboard, inlaid fruitwood and staghorn fingerboard and tailpiece.
Brief description
Pochette (prev called a kit), ivory and tortoiseshell, German, about 1680.
Physical description
'Narrow model, with body of a fruitwood coupled with ivory in fancy alternation, shaped to five faces. Belly with nearly straight outwards-facing C-holes and a small hart-shaped hole near the fingerboard. Tailpiece and fingerboard of the same wood as the body, with feather banding in ivory which is in fact stag's horn. The finial is in the form of a sheep's head. Four small boxwood pegs.'

Anthony Baines, Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-Keyboard Instruments (London, 1978), p. 22.
Dimensions
  • Total length: 47cm
Taken from Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p. 22
Gallery label
KIT German; about 1650 Fruitwood and ivory body, tail piece and fingerboard. Finial in the form of a sheep's head. Non-Keyboard Catalogue No.: 4/5 The kit seems to have been used mostly as an aid for teaching dancing although one Francis Pemberton "was so excellent a master of the Kit, that he was able to play solos on it, exhibiting all the graces and elegancies of the violin". 498-1905(pre September 2000)
Object history
This instrument formed part of the collections of T.W.Taphouse sold at Sotheby's on 7th June 1905 (lot 33.) and was bought by the Museum for £5-15- 6 (£5.78)

Terminology note, 2024: The current terminology for “boat-shaped” instruments such as this is 'pochette' rather than the English term 'kit' which is now generally applied only to violin-shaped instruments.

Summary
A small, boat-shaped violin, known by the French term pochette, was suitable for carrying around in a coat pocket. They were played by dancing masters before demonstrating a particular step to their pupils. However, this example is made from expensive decorative materials, and it may have been intended as a collector's curiosity rather than as a working instrument.

On loan to the Horniman Museum.
Bibliographic reference
Anthony Baines: Catalogue of Musical Instruments in the Victoria and Albert Museum - Part II: Non-keyboard instruments. (London, 1998), p.22
Collection
Accession number
498-1905

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Record createdMay 16, 2001
Record URL
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