Pochette

Dancing was an expected aristocratic accomplishment. Instruction was given at home by a visiting dance master, who played a small fiddle to provide music for the lessons. The compact, slender shape of these instruments made them easy to transport and gave them the name pochette, which suggests that they were carried in one's coat pocket. Elaborately decorated pochettes made of precious materials were often seen and collected as art objects in their own right.

Description: Boat-shaped body, back of five stripes of slightly chipped tortoiseshell on red-stained wood, separated by small ivory stripes; spruce belly cracked and glued at lower part, with two C-holes, inlaid tortoiseshell heart and flower; stained hardwood and maple purfling; neck covered with tortoiseshell; snakewood fingerboard covered with tortoiseshell (some missing); stained pear tailpiece; pegbox terminates in carved lion head; three pegs original, one replacement; ivory endpin with mother-of-pearl eye; replacement bridge; soundpost rests on an oblong hardwood reinforcement.