100 ANALYSIS OF INSTRUMENT EXAMPLES

KITS OR POCHETTES

The kit, or pochette, was the tiny instrument used by dancing-masters of

the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries discreetlyto mark time and tune
for their pupils. In essence it is a highly portable, literally pocketable,
violin, carried with its tiny bow in a tubular case inside the long pockets
of the teacher's coat. The usual form of the instrument was the so-called
'rebee' shape, sometimes also called a sordine, which was sttaight-sided,
narrow, and truncheon-like (hence the tnbular case), although many
survive with miniature violin bodies, somethnes festooned in outline like
onr first example, dating from 1686. More rare is the type represented
here by the second specirnen, of c.l760, which, like the preceding violas
d'amore, has an arrangement of sympathetic strings below the fìnger-
board. Later examples were inade to collapSe, or perhaps assemble, with
bow, into a hollow walking-stick, as were some flutes arid clarinets, as
well as the more expected swords, guns, and driuktng-flasks of the early
nineteenth century.
One characteristic comman to most k:its, however, is the archaic 'E'
forrn of sound-hole (see Exx. II and DI), used here no doubt to minimize the
weakerllng effect of the openings to the very narrow sound-boards.

Ex. xvm
Figs. 79-80, P!. XVIII
KIT or POCHETTE. BELGIUM, BRUSSELS, 1686
GASPAR BORBON
MUSÉE DU CONSERVATOIRE EOYAL DE MUSIQUE, BRUSSELS
Ace. No.: 2764

A!though it seems to be an unusually complex outline for such a modest

little instrument, this arrangement of convolutions is also found in
pochettes other than this example of Borbon's. One such is the pochette,
thought to be Italian and once attributed to Stradivari, which is in the
Donaldson collection. This has the sarne body outline, but a different head,
bearing a conventional scroll-head instead of the volute and escutcheon
of the Borbon. The temptation to attribute the Donaldson pochette to
Stradivari is understandable, far amongst the many paper patterns of
instrument outlines left by the master are a number of kit designs of
varying forms, two of which are sirnllar to thls 'festooned' form. It was
interesting to compare the outline of the Borbon (1686) with the two
Stradivari patterns (c.1700 1), copies of which were rnade from the
originals in Cremona. None of the curves was found to correspond in any
of the designs, whereas the height of the middie-bout complex, that is,
distance RK (see Fig. 79), was found to be the same in all three cases-the
only ·common measurement.
The body geometry of the Borbon pochette is shown in Fig. 79. As can
 ANALYSIS OF INSTRUMENT EXAMPLES 101

be seen, it reveals a further example of great-circle planning, although

here, as in the j aye viol (Ex. IV), the eire!e does no t coincide with the are of
origin, as in Ex. II (Maria treble viol) and Ex. XVI (anonymous Bohemian ,
viola d'amore). The radti of the outline arcs were governed by a simple //
commensurable scheme based on a ùnit (u) of9. 5 rom, which was the unit /
radius of the smallest arcs in Fig. 79, given the lower-case letters of a', b', /
c', d', ande' for their centres. The top, like the bottom, ofthe instrument's /
outline iS defined by a miniature vesica piScis, an arrangement which, as it J
were, 'anchors' the two symmetrical halves of the instrument at each of
its extreme ends. The top vesica are is W'U', centred at V', radius 19 mm
or 2u. The curve is then inflexed by main upper-bout are U' S', centre T', 1
positioned on the great circle, and radius 47.5 rom or Su. The curve is \
closed bythefirstofthe smallarcs, S'R', centre e', radius u. Small arcR'P', '
centre d', radius u, makes the corner, which is tumed by inverse are P'O', '
eentre c', also radius u. The next are, middle-bout are O'N', is centred at ''
''
Q', andis ofrad)us 28.5 mm.or 3u. Whenproduced, this are andare U'S',
centred at T', touch 'tangentially' (see dotted line in Fig. 79). The middle
D
bouts are contin~t<d by straightline N'M', and then turn inwards with are
M'L', centre g', radius 38 mm, 4u, andare completed by small are L'K', FIG. 79
centre b', in the lower sound-hole centring, radius u.
The lower bouts also start (or end) with a small arc-K'J', centred ata',
radiuB also u. They curve inwai-ds with main are J'H', centred at Z'
(outside the great circ!e) and of radius 66.5 mm, or 7u. The outline is
completed by the echo vesica piscis arcs of the top, although here they are
beautifully connected by the are of origin, which is centred at the upper
intersection ofthe two arcs (E). Owing to wear, or an error in drawing or
making, this lower vesica is a fractidn smaller than the upper one: H'G',
centre I'' has a radius of 18.5 mm (0.5 = short of 2u), which makes
diameter EG', the radius of are G'D', 37 m.m. Regarding thls as wear, or
error, the final two outline vectors would be 2u and 4u, respectively.
The sound-hole centrings are pierced by a circle drawn from P on the
centre line; its radius is 3 7 ìnm, just short of 4u, which would have given
a radius of 38 m.m. The centres ofthe curves ofthe sound-holes have also
been drawn in Fig. 79. The outermost curve is cèntred at X' on the great
circle, while the inner curve is centred at Y'. Their radii, 107 rnm and
82 rom, are not related to the commensurable scheme. The only linear
measurement, vertical or horizontal, to yield to the 9.5 mm unit, apart,
that is, from the above radli, proved to be the string length which, be\ng
304 mm, divides 304/9.5 to 32u.
The diminutive head of the instrurnent is shown in outline profile in
Fig. 80. Here agaln the radli ofthe arcs were found to be multiples ofthe
basic unit, u, of 9.5 m.m. Once more, the overall proportions (e.g. the
contalning rectangle WXYZ) have not been considered proportionately.
The under-curve of the volute is started with are AB, centre O, radius
19 mm or 2u, continued by are BC, centre D, radius 66.5 mm (7u) and
èompleted by short straight line CB and counter-curve BF, centre G,
radius agaln 19 mm or 2u. The top side ofthe peg-box consists oflarge are
m, centred atJ, and ofradius 66.5 mm (7u), shortstraightline IK, and the FIG. 80
inner curve KL, also centred at O, and of radius 6.5 m.m. J"

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PLATE XVIII

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