[3] A common misconception is that pochettes were intended for children, when in fact they were conceived for adults; their small size allowed them to be used where the larger violins were too cumbersome to carry, or too expensive to own.

Similarly, Mersenne wrote that it was common practice among pochette players (such as traveling minstrels or dance teachers) to carry the instrument in a pocket.

The great luthier Antonio Stradivari is known to have made a few pochettes in his career; two are known to have survived to modern times, one possibly in bad shape, and the other on display at the Conservatoire de Paris Museum.

[9] Claudio Monteverdi used the "chirp" sound of the pochette to infer bird song in his aria "Ecco pur ch'a voi ritorno" from the 1607 opera L'Orfeo.

[12] Due to being an essential feature of court entertainment and dance, pochettes were often made of expensive materials such as exotic woods, tortoise shells or ivory, as well as being decorated with elaborate carvings.

[17] The Fellowship of Makers and Restorers of Historical Instruments has expressed that a pochette's strings ought not to be longer than ten inches (25 cm).