Hand in glove

   

 

     To help a fellow Cornflower reader with research for an article, does anyone happen to know of any books on the history of manufacture of gloves, or even gloves as fashion accessories?

     Margaret already has Gloves by Alison Cumming, but would be glad of any other suggestions - please just leave a comment on this post.

Comments

[Trevor Berrett]

Perhaps not as exhaustive as you're looking for, but I thought Philip Roth's American Pastoral did a pretty good job of getting into some of the practice of manufacturing, if not the history.

[Sheila]

Re gloves: Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral has a fine scene in which an elderly commerical glove maker explains the process to a young woman. This is one fine book, by the way.

[Nancy]

A google search of: hand gloves history

produced a couple of interesting 'hits' on the first page of links (below).

"By My Hand: Gloves and Mittens" on a site labeled: Your Independent Source of News from the Current Middle Ages - and has lots of links, one of which is below. http://www.scatoday.net/node/4896

The Glove Website - "...In this site I hope to give glove history, glove patterns, and a place to show off our work in gloving." [much SCA related info. and the books in the bibliography are quite old]
http://www.glove.org

[Anne]

Karen - I do not know personally of any books on the history of gloves but I would suggest the Museum of Costume in Bath as a source of information. It has a fine collection of gloves throughout the ages and I believe the archivists and historians at the museum are considered world class in their expertise. It has to be worth your reader making contact to see what help or directions they could give.

[Margaret Powling]

Thank you Karen, and thank you readers of Cornflower, for giving me this help with my researches about the history of the manufacture of gloves. I shall certainly try and get a copy of Philip Roth's book, and I shall check out those websites which Nancy mentions. Also, thanks Anne, for suggesting the Museum of Costume in Bath - this was my first port of call,so to speak, as they are always helpful there. But thanks for mentioning it. Indeed, thank you all for your help.

[probablyjane]

The only brand name that comes to mind as far as gloves are concerned is Dents who, according to their website have been going since 1777. Would it be worth contacting them about access to their company archive?

[Ruth]

http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/
http://www.thegloverscompany.org/ Worshipful Co of Glovers
http://www.costumesociety.org.uk/

[Margaret Powling]

Again thanks to all for those pieces of good advice.
Margaret