Gloves, past and present

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GLOVES, PAST AND PRESENT

GLOVES

PAST AND PRESENT

By

WILLARD M. SMITH

NEW YORK
THE SHERWOOD PRESS, Inc.

1917

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COPYRIGHT, 1917

BY WILLARD M. SMITH

All rights reserved

SEP 15 1917

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PREFACE

TVyfOST MEN, apparently, take their gloves
^^•*' for granted. In tliese days the little re-
finements of civilization are accepted among
us without a thought; but in so doing
we lose a great deal of enjoyment which we
never were intended to overlook. Least of all
are our gloves commonplace. Mr. Chesterton
has something to say about Tremendous
Trifles. To my mind, he might have been talk-
ing about gloves. If you choose to think of
them as trifles, then they are tremendous.

For thirty years I have devoted myself to
the practical problems of the glove industry,
and my connection with one of the substantial
firms of master-merchant-glovers in the world
has taught me how little gloves are known or
appreciated by the millions of persons who buy
them and wear them. The pursuit of glove lore
— the historic romance of the glove — has long
since been with me a selfish recreation. Now
I desire to share it, as well as the practical
knowledge, with all men and women who have
missed seizing upon the real relation which
gloves bear to life.

In the work of gathering together and ar-
ranging the material in this book, I wish to
acknowledge my gratitude to Miss Marion
Savage, who has collaborated faithfully with
me, and has shared in no small degree my own
enthusiasm for gloves, past and present.

WILLAED M. SMITH.
June, 1917.

CONTENTS

CHAPTEB PAGE

I. Why Gloves 1

II. Ancient History of Gloves - - 9

III. The Language of Gloves - - - 18

IV. How Gloves Came to Grenoble - 30
V. Glovers in the Eighteenth Century 41

VI. Gloves in Many Marts - - - 52

VII. From Artist to Artisan - - - 67

VIII. Annonay and Its Industry - - 79

IX. The Gloves We Buy .... 90

X. Gloves of the Hour - - - 107

GLOVES, PAST AND PRESENT

Chapter I.
WHY GLOVES?

"None other symbol — the cross excepted — has so entered
into the feelings and the affections of men, or so ruled and
bound in integrity and right the transactions of life, as
the glove." — William 8. Beck.

IT is no unusual tiling to meet American
women who are connoisseurs of the hand-
made laces brought to this country from
abroad. Laces, like painting or sculpture,
are an object of stud}^; they have been raised
to the level of the fine arts. But how often
do we come across a woman — it matters not
how intelligent she ma}^ be — who has any real
standards to guide her in the selection of
gloves? Whether we have need, in a business
sense, of expert knowledge on this subject
or not, nearly everybody spends enough
money yearly on this single detail of dress
to be interested to know just what he is
getting. Yet, there is scarcely any other
department of merchandise with which the
average person has so hasty and superficial
an acquaintance. Nor is this by any means
the layman's own fault entirely.

Let us look for a moment at the fabrics
which go into the making of women's suits
and gowns; shoes, men's shirts, carpets and
furs: we recognize that all these long have
been a matter of public education. Where is
the woman who does not know the leading
materials for coats and dresses? She maj^
live far from the great commercial centres.

2 Gloves^ Past and Present

but her women's magazine, published in New
York, Philadelphia or Chicago, brings her
descriptions by an expert, with colored, photo-
graphic reproductions, of the fashionable
novelties. As for the experienced city
shopper, if she were tested with her eyes shut,
simply by touching the fabric she could
identify it in most cases and could readily
distinguish between goods of fine and inferior
quality.

In the carpet department not infrequently
a customer talks intelligently of "three
frame" and "six frame" Brussels, or insists
upon being shown "hand-cut" Wilton. Even
the male shopper is not so indifferent in these
days as not to know the names of the several
varieties of fine cottons of which his shirts
are made. He is aware of the difference
between plain woven madras and crepe
madras ; he may prefer cotton cheviot, and
will stipulate whether it shall be the Oxford
or the "basket" weave. But if he be really
fastidious, the chances are that he will
demand "soisette." In the last few years an
amazing amount of style and seasonal variety
have been introduced into shoes and furs.
The result is that in these lines we feel
obliged to be informed up to the minute. But,
while fabrics and fashions in gloves con-
stantly are changing, how much discrimina-
tion do most persons display in the selecting
of this equally important item of apparel?

A well-dressed woman enters the glove
department of a large shop on Fifth Avenue,
New York. She may be an independent pro-
fessional woman or she may be the wife or
daughter of a man of means. In either case

Why Gloves 3

she should be concerned to know what value
she receives for the money she spends. She
asks for mocha gloves; but finding these
rather more expensive than she had sup-
posed, she may be persuaded to accept a
sueded sheepskin under the misnomer of
mocha, which substitute — could she but know
it — is a fraud, as even the finest suedes in
point of durability are invariably inferior
to, while they strikingly resemble, the
Arabian mocha. The fallacy consists in her
not being educated to know that it is the
genuine mocha which she requires and for
which she should be perfectly willing to pay.
The unqualified superiority of real mocha to
sueded sheepskin is worth every cent of the
difference she would put into the purchase.
On the other hand, a man has been told
that the only serviceable heavy glove for com-
mon wear is the cape glove. He insists, there-
fore, upon having the genuine cape — a name
originally and properly used to designate
gloves made of superior skins from the Cape
district of South Africa. As a matter of fact,
the soft, pliable, widely-worn glove in
various weights, now commercially known
as cape, is made from skins grown in many
lands — principally lamb, tanned and dressed
by the "napa dipped" method. In conse-
quence of having wool hide, these skins are
not so tough as the Cape Hope goat with the
hair hide. One pays less for them than for
the real cape, but, for ordinary appear-
ance, they are a fair substitute, and their
wearing qualities undoubtedly meet the
average requirement. A practical saving of
this sort the public should be taught to
appreciate.

4 Gloves, Past and Present

But not for material reasons alone should
gloves be given a prominent place in the cur-
riculum of popular "uplift." In the most
obvious sense they are too little known, too
vaguely appreciated, to be sure ; and yet, the
satisfaction of being well-gloved consists in
something more than merely the delightful
sensation of having one's hands neatly,
warmly and substantially covered. We think
of gloves first, no doubt, as a daily necessity.
But we also value the finer qualities as a
mark of elegance. Beautiful gloves impart
the coup cle grace to the formal costume of
either man or woman. At the same time,
clinging to this luxury, like a perfume of
old, we are dimly conscious of an aura of
half-forgotten associations, linking the glove
with royalty, chivalry and romance; with
famous affairs of honor, with the pomp and
ceremonial of the Church, with countless
dramatic episodes in history and literature.

How does it happen that, instinctively, we
invest this trifle with so much meaning? Can
it be that we are the repository of memories
of past splendors, invoked by a familiar
object which has all but lost its symbolic and
poetic significance of ancient times? Even
to-day the wearing of gloves lends to the
individual a sense of dignity and personal
distinction. Like Mrs. Wilfer, of Dickens
fame, our grandeur is increased by our gloves.

In the pages which follow we shall dis-
cover that the background of our subject is
one of the richest and most picturesque we
could desire to explore. Cloves have deeply
affected the lives of human beings from the
very earliest periods. They have descended

Why Gloves 5

to us from a remote antiquity, and are in very
fact our inherited title to nobility, for they
were bequeathed to us by the princely prel-
ates, the kings and over-lords of the past,
whose chief insignia and most treasured
badge of honor was the glove. To compre-
hend all that they have brought with them
down through the centuries we must retrace
a vast deal of history, and let our imagina-
tions play over scenes and customs far
removed from our own day.

We shall find the glove intimately bound
up with the development of social usages in
every land. To solemn observances in which
the glove filled a special role, much of the
impressiveness of the stately rites of the
mediaeval church was due. The white linen
glove on the hand of a bishop literally repre-
sented to the people the stainless purity of
the revered palm raised in benediction. The
glove itself was holy. No layman dared to
clothe his hands in the presence of the clergy.
Kings and the military, however, wore gloves
with quite a different meaning. In appear-
ance, also, their gloves were utterly unlike
those consecrated for religious use. Of heavy
leather, elaborately tooled or decorated, or
the mailed gauntlet which formed part of a
warrior's armor, they signified authority,
power, and were often conveyed from one
prince to another as an expression of hos-
tility, or as a promise of good faith.

Princely etiquette, indeed, revolved about
the glove to such a degree that the latter
became, as it were, the proxy of its master,
his embassador, the mute herald of the royal
will. TVTiat a high ethical bond and pledge

6 Gloves, Past and Present

of honor that leathern e^gy of a ruler's hand
actually constituted! And as the glove
descended with the customs of feudal tenure
from sovereign to liege lord, and became
gradually the regalia of a growing landed
aristocracy, how the manners of semi-har-
harous Europe were moulded and softened
by the glove! At first we find it the jealous
device of the royal few. Then it becomes the
badge of superiority among the over-lords.
Their followers receive it; and, slowly,
through the centuries, this fascinating bit of
personal apparel works like leaven until it
at last is recognized as the mark of gentlefolk
everywhere. It spreads in proportion as
liberty and culture are diffused among the
people. Follow the progress of the glove, and
you trace the growth in enlightenment and
refinement of the nations. One of the true
forerunners of democracy — as democracy
means the elevating, not the levelling, of man-
kind— the glove takes its place among the
civilizing forces of the world.

No small part of the importance which
attaches to the subject of these investigations
lies in the relation gloves bear to the history
of modern industry. We shall find that the
position of the glove-makers among the
mediaeval craftsmen was unique, and of the
utmost consequence to the industrial evolu-
tion of Europe. The life of a French city has
depended for many centuries upon the
development of the glove drama. And, in
their turn, what have not the glove-makers
of Grenoble meant to the wealth and artistic
prestige of France? In the annals of the
world's trade — from the early days of barter

Why Gloves 7

and exchange down to the present methods
of international commerce — gloves have
always been conspicuous. The product in
itself is worthy of our wonder. We may
marvel at 'the beautiful finish, that anything
so delicate can also be so strong; we may
admire the style, the cut, the fit of the glove
of to-day. And yet, the perfection of the glove
art has by no means been reached.

To the simple prototype of four fingers,
thumb, palm, back and wrist, the glove-
makers of our time have added all that makes
the present glove elegant beyond any which
has preceded it. Here we have, perhaps, the
most interesting article of personal apparel
regardless of the wearer's sex. For a glove
is' a glove, whether it graces a woman's
slender hand or a man's stouter member.
The same cannot be claimed for the shoe —
at least, not since the passing of the mannish
girl. The high-arched, French-heeled, parti-
colored footgear which to-day is patronized
by the feminine species has little in common
with the broad-built, low-last article in which
the male walks comfortably about his busi-
ness. The tradition of the glove, however, is
less erratic, and equally applicable to man
or woman.

It is perfectly possible to out-countenance
boredom by turning to our simplest, our most
casually accepted, possessions. Even our
gloves may kindle in us delight by their
beauty, or may plunge us into the mysteries
of the past. Gloves are history. Gloves are
an art. Far from being the humble member
of our wardrobe we sometimes have care-
lessly supposed them to be, they are of exceed-

8 GrLovES, Past and Present

ingly ancient lineage, and have retained mucli
of their original regal and aristocratic
character. Though once a symbol and a cult,
gloves have been adapted to our Twentieth
Century needs, and the subtleties of a new
age are finding expression in the tireless
multiplying of the finest gloves to suit every
conceivable occasion.

The glove which encases your hand— no
matter how much a part of yourself through
daily familiarity it may seem — ^never can be
anything but a stranger to you and unappre-
ciated, until you know gloves. Even the sense
of politeness and prestige which you enjoy
is not enough; the glove legend also should
be yours. Not without good reason are we
inspired to live up to our gloves.

Chapter II.
ANCIENT HISTOEY OF GLOVES

"A man plucked off his glove and gave it to his neighbor:
and this was for a testimony in Israel." — Old Testament,
Chaldaic Version: Ruth: ch. iv., vs. 7.

GLOVES are so ancient that the first
mention of them in literature is to be
found in a great classic of three thousand
years ago — the Bible. Zealous disputants in
all kinds of causes have had a trick of twist-
ing Holy Writ to serve the purpose of their
arguments. But in appropriating the above
lines from the Book of Kuth, the writer has
not been guilty of taking liberties with the
Scriptures — even though the passage does
not read as he has quoted it in the King
James Version.

Turning to the authorized text, we find:
"Now this was the manner in former times
in Israel concerning redeeming and concern-
ing changing, for to confirm all things;
a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to
his neighbor, and this was for a testimony
in Israel. Therefore the kinsman said unto
Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe."

A certain learned Hebrew of high literary
attainments, M. Josephs, a noted authority
in the early part of the nineteenth century,
in dealing with this passage bids us follow
the Targum, or Chaldaic version of the Old
Testament, which renders, instead of shoe,
the word glove. He reminds us that the men
who w^rote the Targum lived fifteen hundred
years before the translators of our English
Bible; that their rendition grew directly out

10 Gloves, Past and Present

of the oral interpretations and paraphrases
of the Scriptures read in the synagogues — a
custom which began, probably, soon after the
return of the Jews from captivity. The
Targumists, of course, were much closer to
the original Hebrew usages than the mediaeval
scribes. The disputed phrase in their ver-
sion, narthek yad, means "the covering of
the right hand." It is derived from the
Hebrew text, nangal, which, employed
verbally, means to close or enclose. The
expression, nangal regel, is, literally, "to
enclose the foot" and signifies a shoe. The
use of nangal alone, however, as a noun,
always implied an article enclosing the
hand — in other words, a glove. There can
be no doubt that the writer of the Chaldaic
version accepted the term as a hand-covering,
not a foot-covering — even specifying that the
glove given as a testimony in Israel was
drawn off the right hand.

Both ancient and modern rabbinical
scholars, we are told, agree in rendering the
word from the original as "glove," not shoe.
And Joel Levy, a distinguished German
translator, gave, instead of shoe, his pic-
turesque, native idiom of hand-schuh (hand-
shoe) , by which gloves are known in Germany
to this day.

Added to etymological testimony, more-
over, is the evidence of ancient custom.
Gloves, in the symbolical sense, have been
employed as a token of good faith as far
back as history can be traced. The shoe, on
the other hand, never is used figuratively in
Holy Writ except to express humility or
supine obedience. The man who wished to

Ancient History of Gloves 11

make a compact with Ms neighbor, as Boaz
when he bought the lands of Kuth, must offer
his glove as pledge in the transaction. The
very same practice is common in the Orient
to-day.

Challenge by the glove also appears to
have been customary from antiquity. In the
one hundredth and eighth Psalm, the prophet
in an ecstacy of triumph cries: "Over Edom
will I cast out my glove I" Had this warrior
of the spirit merely thrown a shoe over the
city he had vowed to reclaim to Jehovah,
what boastful promise would there have
been in that?

Among the Jews, however, three thou-
sand years ago, gloves were by no means in
common use. Probably they were worn only
by men of high rank, and then solely on
ceremonial occasions. We have reason to
suppose that kings wore them, for in the
mural paintings of Thebes ambassadors are
depicted bearing from some far country*
gifts of gloves. The women certainly did not
wear them, for they are not mentioned in the
exhaustive list of "bravery," enumerated by
Isaiah (Chapter III.), the vainglorious fal-
lals of which the daughters of Zion in their
pride were to be despoiled on the Day of
Doom. "Feet-rings, neck chains, thin veils,
tires or bonnets, zones or girdles, jewels for
the nostrils, embroidered robes, tunics, trans-
parent garments, fine linen vests, armlets" —
all such fineries as these must the fair Israel-
ites relinquish at the sound of the last trump.
Surely, had gloves been among their vanities,
these also must have been confiscated by the
Inexorable Judge !

12 GrLOVES, Past and Present

Nearly a century after tlie Book of Ruth
was written, Homer relates how he came
upon Laertes, the father of Ulysses, working
in his garden (for he was a farmer) "while
gloves secured his hands to shield them from
the thorns." So, we know that the early
Greeks wore gloves. It is striking to note
that they employed them, too, for humble
and useful purposes. They were not monopo-
lized by priests and kings. However, we are
given no hint how Laertes' gloves were shaped
nor of what materials they were made.
Probably they resembled the modern mitten,
for it is not until under the Roman emperors
that we actually learn that gloves were made
with fingers. These were called, specially,
digitalia, to distinguish them from the
cMrothocae, or fingerless variety.

Virgil makes reference to gauntlets worn
at the Trojan contests, as "the gloves of
death"; and he describes gloves worn by
Eryx, "composed of seven folds of the thickest
bull's hide, sewn and stiffened with knots of
lead and iron."

The gloves of the Persians, we may sus-
pect, were not of the warlike type, but were
sported simply for luxury and display. Zeno-
phon who, somebody has remarked, "had the
courage of his dislikes," despised the ancient
Persians and stigmatized them as effeminate
because they gloried in their gloves. In his
Cyropaedia he lays stress on the fact that on
one occasion Cyrus was actually known to
go forth "without his gloves"!

Varro, contemporary of Cicero, observes
in his De Be Rustica that "olives gathered
by the naked hand are preferable to those

Ancient History of Gloves 13

pulled witli gloves on." The Epicureans evi-
dently had adopted the theory that fruit, to
be fully enjoyed, should not even be handled
in the plucking. Again, among the Eomans,
we find gloves an article of utility, worn by
agriculturists — though it is likely that these
hand-coverings were in the shape of mittens
and not of the digitalia style. To the latter
appear to have been attached far greater
prestige.

At the same time, the fingered gloves also
had come to be used for a practical protec-
tion. Pliny, the younger, speaking of the
private secretary of his illustrious uncle,
writes: "His amanuensis" (who accom-
panied him on his notable journey to Mount
Vesuvius) "wore gloves upon his hands that
winter, lest the severity of the weather should
make him lose any time" (from his duties as
scribe). It is to gloves, then, that we are
indebted in part for some of the most remark-
able passages in the works of the celebrated
Roman naturalist, whose scientific enthu-
siasm eventually cost him his life in the
eruption of Vesuvius, 79 a.d.

Not until the age of Musonious, the philoso-
pher, who lived near the close of the first
century of the Christian era, do we find
gloves among the Romans falling into dis-
repute. Musonious ejaculates: "It is shame-
ful that persons in perfect health should
clothe their hands with soft and hairy cover-
ings!" The denunciation of the dress-
reformers of those days, however, seems to
have had as little effect in stemming the tide
of fashion as in our times.

14 Gloves, Past and Present

A truly revolting use to whicli gloves are
said to have put — if we may believe certain
tales of the famous story-teller, Athenseus
(200 A.D.) — is described in a bit of ancient
fiction in which he relates that "a well-known
glutton," one of his own contemporaries,
"always came to the table with gloves upon
his hands, that he might be able to handle
and eat the meat while it was hot, and devour
more than the rest of the company." No
wonder the early Fathers of the Church
looked upon gloves as vicious and corrupting !
But their biting invective was directed prin-
cipally against the effeminancy of those who
fell victim to the pleasurable practice, and
about the beginning of the ninth century
ecclesiastical authority forbade the monks
from wearing any gloves save those made
of the tough, unyielding sheep-skin. Such, it
was thought, could not possibly afford the
brethren any sensuous enjoyment, nor tempt
them into love of luxuries.

There is an ancient story of Saint Gudula,
patroness of Brussels, which well illustrates
the early Christian distrust of gloves. In
Butler's Legends of the Saints, it is related
of this holy woman — who died in 712 a.d. —
that one day, kneeling at prayers barefooted,
one of the monks, moved to compassion, "put
his gloves upon her feet" to protect them
from the cold stones of the floor. St. Gu-
dula, however, snatched off the offending ar-
ticles and contemptuously tossed them ceiling
high. And there they remained, says the
the legend, miraculously suspended in mid-
air for one hour.

The first legal enactment concerning gloves

Ancient History of Gloves 15

occurs in tlie records of France. About 790,
Emperor Charlemagne granted unlimited
rights of hunting to the abbots and monks
of Sithin for the purpose of procuring deer
skins for making covers for their books, and
also for gloves and girdles. The bishops,
however, grew to feel that theirs should be
the exclusive privilege of wearing gloves of
such fine quality; and by the Council of Aix,
in the reign of Louis, Le Debonnaire, the
inferior clergy were ordered to abstain from
deer skin and to wear only sheep skin, as
was formerly deemed fitting for monks.

In England gloves virtually "came over
with the Conqueror." The French importa-
tion— which several centuries later was to
be the cause of such intense commercial
rivalry between the two countries- — was the
mailed glove of stout deer or sheep skin, with
joined plates of metal affixed to the back and
fingers. The early Saxons, however, wore
gloves of a rude sort, for the derivation of
the word from gluf is distinctly Saxon, and
they are mentioned in the epic of Beowulf,
composed in the seventh century, a.d.
William S. Beck thinks that the early Britons
may have been quick to appreciate the com-
fort afforded by the gloves worn by their
Koman conquerors. It is known for a fact
that the Britons of that age wore boots of
untanned leather, and it should be no tax
upon the imagination to suppose that if they
protected one extremity they probably did
the other.

But Professor Boyd Dawkins, without a
doubt, has pushed the history of the glove
farthest back of any antiquarian. Profes-

16 Gloves, Past and Present

sor Dawkins assures us that the cavemen
wore gloves. He actually defines their style;
they were "not of ordinary size," he tells us,
"but reaching even to the elbows, anticipat-
ing by untold ages the multi-button gloves
of the Victorian era." Now just when did
these pre-historic, glove-wearing men live?
Another eminent geologist holds that they
inhabited the south of France before they
were driven forth by the excruciating cold of
the glacial period. It is impossible accurately
to fix the date of the great ice age ; Dr. CroU,
however, and other celebrated scientists,
appear to agree that it began about 240,000
years ago, that it lasted about 160,000 years
and ended somewhat over 80,000 years since.

Here, then, is an antiquity for gloves
which should satisfy our fondest ambitions!
This theory also restores to France with a
vengeance the original prestige for glove-
making of which that country is so jealous.
Theory, should we say? The cavemen's
gloves, as we are distinctly told, were made
of roughly dressed skins, sewn with elaborate
bone needles; and an unmistakable drawing
of such a glove was discovered by Professor
Dawkins, rudely etched upon a bone, found
among pre-glacial relics.

The glove, accordingly, dates from the
twilight of mankind. The ancient peoples
wore gloves; and by the tenth century in
Europe we find them in fairly general use —
to some degree as a practical protection and
hand-covering, but, more strikingly, as the
badge of royal or ecclesiastical authority
and dignity.

The gentler sex, however, at that time had

Ancient History of Gloves 17

by no means come into their own, so far as
gloves were concerned. Among tlie earlj^
nations men seem to liave enjoyed the
monopoly of this article of dress, and the
reason is plain to see, when we remember
that gloves, in those days, were worn almost
exclusively as part of the regalia of public
office. The daughters of Israel, and the ladies
of Persia, Greece, Eome and mediaeval
Europe, adopted the voluminous sleeve which
came down over the hand and rendered
gloves, for practical purposes, unnecessary.
A manuscript of the tenth century, however,
describes a hand-covering worn by an Anglo-
Saxon lady which resembled a muffler pro-
vided with a separate division for the thumb.
This was reproduced by Planche in his His-
tory of British Costume, and is colored blue.
But the long, flowing sleeves were customary,
and were eA^en worn by both sexes — men in
the ordinary walks of life, apparently, being
compelled to content themselves with sharing
the feminine expediency for keeping the
hands warmly covered. For a man to be
gloveless at that period certainlj^ spelled
humiliation !

It was not until the thirteenth century that
the ladies of Europe blossomed forth in
gloves — not of the mitten variety, but boast-
ing four fingers as well as a thumb. The first
to be introduced for the fair sex were made
of linen, of simple design, and reached to the
elbows to accommodate the short-sleeved
gowns of the period. Not before Queen
Elizabeth's time, however, did the elaborately
embroidered, be jeweled and perfumed glove
captivate woman's fancy and satisfy her
feminine dreams of beauty and extravagance.

Chapter III.
THE LANGUAGE OF GLOVES

"Right, Caxon, right as my glove! By-the-by, I fancy that
phrase comes from the custom of pledging a glove as a sign
of irrefragable faith." — The Antiquary: Sir Walter Scott.

WE are so matter of fact in these days
that, rarely, if ever, do we speak in
symbols. The elaborate code of the glove
has almost entirely dropped out of use. "And
speaks all languages the rose," the poet
reminds us, but it is doubtful whether the
most romantic of flowers ever conveyed such
wealth of meaning, even between tongue-tied
lovers, as the glove. Certainly, in addition,
the latter has expressed a far greater variety
of lofty sentiments not connected with affairs
of the heart. In the Church, on the throne,
in civil law, on the bench, in private breaches
of honor, at festivals of rejoicing and in the
last solemn rites accorded to the dead, gloves
for many centuries were an important part
of the ceremonial, and still, to-day, are not
without meaning.

Sometimes it is claimed that gloves became
a symbol in the Church long before kings
singled them out to embody a monarch's good
faith or the royal consent. Of course kings
wore gloves before the Christian Church
came into being. But, as we have seen, the
ancients seem to have attached less alle-
gorical significance to gloves and to have
regarded them more as a personal luxury. In
the Orient, however, as the Bible shows,
challenge by the glove was a recognized
institution. Also, in the sales of lands, the

The Language of Gloves 19

purchaser was given a glove to symbolize
delivery or investiture — of wliicli tlie passage
from Ruth which heads the previous chapter
is, probably, the most famous instance.
From the Oriental custom Mediaeval Europe
derived the challenge, so picturesquely em-
ployed in history and in literature. A
certain charter of the thirteenth century
also names a case of re-investiture, or resti-
tution of property, symbolically expressed
by the person restoring the lands casting his
glove upon the ground.

If the Greeks and the Romans were some-
what literal and coldly materialistic in their
attitude toward gloves, it remained for
mediaeval Europe to raise them to a cult. In
the Middle Ages men had a passion for
glorifying the common utensils of life.
Whether it was the clergy or royalty which
first seized upon gloves to exalt them into the
realm of the mysterious, causing them to be
scarcely less revered than the king's or the
bishop's own person, it would be difficult to
say. But, as the gloves bestowed upon the
kings of olden France at their coronations
were blessed and presented by the arch-
bishop of the realm — ^who, in this act, was
simply following the ancient Eastern practice
of performing investiture — it would appear
that gloves were granted by the Church to
the thrones; and that thus the monarch
received this sign of his sovereignty as the
gracious gift of the Spiritual Power, which
enjoyed precedence in honoring the glove.

Certainly gloves were a mark of religious
dignity at an extremely early period, and
played a distinctive part in the rites and

20 Gloves, Past and Present

services of the ancient Cliurcli. Officiating
priests invariably consecrated tlie Holy
Sacrament witli gloves on their hands.
This custom still obtains in the Church of
England. Moreover, the laity always drew
off their gloA^es within the sacred portals,
where it was sacrilege to cover worldly hands
even as the Fathers covered theirs.

To teach truth by sight was one of the
great endeavors of the mediaeval Church. We
should not forget that the masses of the peo-
ple in those days were untaught and child-
like in their mental processes. The clergy
were profound scholars, but they understood
how to appeal to the minds of their com-
municants; they knew that their imagina-
tions should be impressed, that sacred
imagery should be indelibly stamped upon
the sensitive-plate of the soul. Not lip-
parables only, but allegories for the eye—
visible sjnnbols — conveyed sacred meanings
where words could not. Thus art became
the handmaiden of religion, and familiar
objects were invested with hidden sig-
nificance. In this catalogue gloves were by
no means forgotten.

Bruno, Bishop of Segni, tells us that the
gloves of the clergy were originally made of
linen to denote that the hands they covered
were chaste, pure, without blame. In 1287,
Durandus, Bishop of Mende, went to great
pains to prove that the sacred chirothecae —
for the old Latin name had been kept —
were white. He says : "It was specified
that by these gloves the hands would be
preserved chaste, clean during work, and
free from every stain." The gloves which

The Lajq^guage of Gloves 21

encased tlie hands of Pope Boniface VIII., at
the time of his burial, were of white silk,
beautifully worked with the needle, and
ornamented with a rich border, studded with
pearls.

Considerably later — exactly when is not
known — ecclesiastical gloves ceased to be
invariably white, but changed their hue, like
the other vestments, according to the cur-
rent church seasons. Then the gloves of the
church bcame glorious indeed in color,
texture and design! St. Charles Borromeo
prescribes that "they shall be woven through-
out, and adorned with a golden circle on
the outside."

The most famous gloves of this type
which have been preserved — though the
circle is of red silk, not of gold — are those
of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Win-
chester, treasured to this day at Oxford.
These gloves are at least five hundred and
thirty years old. William of Wykeham was
the founder of New College, Oxford, in 1379,
and the gloves were probably worn by him
at the opening religious ceremonial, April 14,
1386. It is extremely likely that they were
made especially for that great occasion. They
are still in a wonderful state of preservation,
and some idea of their magnificance may be
had even from their present appearance.
They are made of crimson purl knitted silk,
embroidered on the back and cuffs with
gold, now faded and tarnished. The octag-
onal designs around the cuffs are separated
by squares of emerald green silk; the cuffs
are lined with crimson silk; and a double
band of gold adorns each finger and thumb.

22 Gloves, Past and Present

The circles are on tlie back of the hand, and
with their sixteen flame-pointed arms, worked
in gold, surround the sacred monogram.

In inventories of church furniture in the
Middle Ages, gloves, elaborately decorated,
frequently appear. These usually were
encrusted with precious jewels and were
so valuable that they were left as legacies.
A pair of gloves was among the bequests of
Bishop Eiculfus who died in 915 a.d. Even
Thomas a Becket — though it is reported that
he never bathed — was buried in immaculate
gloves. And we have proof that old mother
Becket had to be handled with gloves, for at
her baptism, pictured in an ancient illumina-
tion, the officiating bishop is represented in
long, white chirothecae reaching clear above
his venerable elbows.

Gloves in the Church symbolized purity
of heart and deed. In an olden missal,
ascribed to the seventh century, the officiating
bishop, just before offering mass, draws on
his snowy linen gloves with this prayer: "O
Creator of all creatures, grant me, un-
worthiest of Thy servants, to put on the
clothing of justice and joy, that I may be
found with pure hands in Thy sight."

The royal glove, with which the king
received his authority from earliest times,
was usually purple, ornamented with pearls
and precious stones. Such "were anciently
deemed ensigns of imperial dignity," as
Pachymenera records. Previous to the French
Kevolution, at the crowning of the Kings of
France, it was customary for the archbishop
to bless a pair of gloves and present them to
the sovereign as an emblem of secure posses-

The Language of Gloves 23

sion. In tlie English coronation ceremonies
the glove plays a double role. His Majesty
being seated in Westminster Hall, the cham-
pion enters, caparisoned as an ancient knight,
and the herald-at-arms proclaims the chal-
lenge. The champion then throws down his
gauntlet which, after it has lain a short time,
is taken up by the herald and returned to
him. The herald make a proclamation of
some length, and the gauntlet is again thrown
down by the champion of the realm. His
Majesty next drinks to the champion's health
and presents him with the cup. The cham-
pion then takes up his gauntlet and retires.
At the installation in the Abbey, the Duke
of Norfolk presents the king with a right-
hand glove of elaborate and beautiful design,
and the monar^^, putti^ig it on, receives from
the Archbishop of Caitterbury the sceptre
with the dove.

That gloves were actually synonymous with
kingly power is shown by an instance which
occurred in the year 1294, when the Earl of
Flanders by the delivery of a glove into the
hands of Philip the Fair, "granted him pos-
session of the good towne of Flanders." The
wealth of sentiment they enshrined is further
manifested by the act of a woman of royal
blood. After the coronation of Louis XIIL,
we are told, Mary de Medicis, his mother,
"had the piety to desire the king's shirt and
gloves, in order to preserve them carefully in
her cabinet."

One of the most dramatic episodes of its
kind — when a glove under romantic cir-
cumstances was taken as the very embodi-
ment of royal authority — is related in some

24 Gloves, Past and Present

papers of D'Israeli. Young Conraddin, the
last of the Hohenstaufer male line, having
fallen into the hands of Mainfroy, who had
usurped the crown in 1282, was brought up
for execution. On the scaffold the young
prince raised his voice in lamentation and
declared his right to the succession. In proof
of this he cast his glove among the assembled
crowd, beseeching that it might be carried to
his kinsmen who would avenge his death. It
was taken up by a knight and brought to
Peter, King of Aragon, who, in virtue of the
same glove, was afterwards crowned at
Palermo.

The kings of France on the point of death
religiously gave their gloves to their sons as
a token that they were to be invested with
the kingdom. That such should have been
almost their last thought and act shows how
real to them was the ^ power symbolically
invested in the glove.

Gloves, royalty, feudalism — these three
are inseparable in history. The granting of
lands hj the king was the root of the feudal
system, in which modern society had its rise,
and the lein of the monarch over all lands
was the first doctrine of Divine Eight. Thus,
the glove, by which tenure was given, became
also the pledge of the service by virtue of
which tenure was held; and on the hand of
him who could both bestow the one and de-
mand the other, it was indeed a symbol of
supreme authority. In the attire of Eng-
lish monarchs, gloves were especially con-
spicuous under the Norman and the Plantag-
enet dynasties when the feudal system was
yet young. One would infer that as the

The Language of Gloves 25

emblematical embodiment of tbe new order,
kings found them indispensable to tbeir
dignity.

Kings were even buried with, gloves on
their hands, when "arrayed in ghostly state,
they were gathered to their fathers."
Eichard I. and John in their tombs wear
richly jeweled gloves. It is said that
Richard's are the identical ones by which he
was recognized in Austria on his return from
the Crusades. In Canterbury Cathedral the
gloves of Edward, the Black Prince, are hung
above his last resting place.

The Bench inherited gloves direct from
the Church. On the judge's hands they
symbolized incorruptibility, uprightness. In
England a maiden assize — that is, a county
session in which no malefactor is put to
death — is commemorated by a gift of white
gloves, even to-day. White gloves here typify
a clean record, an absence of felony in the
judge's precinct. "They represent the zero of
crime," says Beck, "the antithesis of the
black cap. They afford a foretaste of the
millennium. The occasion of their presenta-
tion is held to reflect credit on any town or
neighborhood, and is widely noticed in the
newspapers." The recorder of Cambridge
was the happy recipient of this honor, we are
told, three times in succession.

Pardoned outlaws, restored from a living
death to all the pleasures of home, the
privileges of citizenship and the protection
of their king, were accustomed to thank their
judges by presenting them with gifts of
gloves. Later, however, this practice was
abused. The offender was compelled to

26 Gloves, Past and Present

appear in person, and by a present of
gloves filled witk coins to implore and obtain
the judges' favor. Thus, by degrees, the
glove fell away from its original significance
and came to be synonymous virith the bribe.

Sir Thom'as More once received in grate-
ful appreciation of a case won for a lady, a
pair of gloves "lined" with forty angels. As
was the custom, this delicate acknowledg-
ment was conveyed to him on the first dsij of
January. "Mistress," wrote the honorable
judge in reply, "since it were against good
manners to refuse your New Year's gift, I
am content to take your gloves; but as for
the lining, I utterly refuse it."

So, gloves, like most of the good things of
life, were exalted and degraded by turns, and
made to contradict themselves. Persons tak-
ing legal oath are required to-day to do so
bare-handed; and a Portuguese proverb
expressive of private integrity, is, "He does
not wear gloves."

Keeping the hands covered in the pres-
ence of superiors was one of the worst social
breaches one could commit in former times.
No doubt, the practice of presenting gloves
to visitors by universities meant that they
recognized their guests to be of such personal
standing and learning as to make them
worthy of remaining with hands clothed even
before the highest collegiate dignitaries. In
addition to symbolizing religious, kingly and
judicial eminence, therefore, gloves typified
also a university honor and were the insignia
of the scholar.

At the Trojan games, nearly one thousand
years before the Christian era, the gauntlet

The Language of Gloves 27

was used botli as a defensive weapon and as
a symbol of defiance. Warlike challenge by
the glove, accordingly, had a very ancient
origin, and in the days of knightly adventure
may have been deliberately imitated from
the early epics by a more consciously
romantic race of heroes. Challenge by the
glove frequently is described by Sir Walter
Scott — who, by the wslj, has more to say
about gloves than any other writer, even
excepting Shakespeare — but nowhere more
eloquently, perhaps, than in Ivanlioe, when
the Jewish maiden demands a champion.

"'I am unskilled to dispute for my relig-
ion' (says Kebecca), ^but I can die for it, if
it be God's will ! Let me pray for your answer
to my demand for a champion.'

"'Give me her glove!' said Beaumanoir.
'This is indeed a slight and fragile gage for a
purpose so deadly! See'st thou, Eebecca, as
this slight glove of thine is to one of our
heavy steel gauntlets, so is thy cause to that
of the Temple, for it is our order which thou
hast defied.'"

In the life of Sir Bernard Gilpin, relative
to customs of the Scottish-English borders
it is recorded, that in the year 1560, the rev-
erend gentleman observed in one of the
churches in which he was preaching, a glove,
hung high against the raftered roof. On
making inquiries he learned that it was
placed there in consequence of a "deadly
feud" prevailing in the district, and that the
owner had suspended it in defiance, daring
to mortal combat anyone who took it down.

The last instance of defiance by the glove
occurred in 1818 in a wager of battle. The

28 Gloves, Past and Present

battle, however, never came off; and tlie
instance was the occasion of the repeal of the
law permitting the ancient trial by battle
and ordeal which existed in England for more
than eight centuries.

Gifts of gloves at funerals is a relic of
ancient times, as was also their presentation
at marriage festivals. In Ben Jonson's play,
The Silent Woman, we learn that a wedding
without this token was suspiciously regarded,
and passed for a jest. Cries one of the guests :

"We see no ensigns of a wedding here,
No character of a bridal!
Where be our starves and gloves?'^

In Italy and Spain the glove was cherished
with the most romantic feeling ever accorded
it throughout all its long and impressive
history. No king of olden days exercised
more despotic rule over his feudal depend-
ents than the Spanish and Italian ladies
over their "cavaliers," to whom even to be
allowed to touch the fair one's glove was a
favor which sent the aspiring lover into
ecstacies. Many a yearning Eomeo of that
chivalric age must have exclaimed :

"Would that I were a glove upon that hand.
That I might touch that cheek !"

Coquetry by the glove seems to have per-
sisted down to a fairly recent period. The
Spectator observes that "Ned Courtly pre-
senting Flavia with her glove (which she had
dropped on purpose), she received it, and
took away his life with a courtesy." Charles
IV. of Spain appears to have been in Ned
Courtly's class, for His Majesty was so

The Language of Gloves 29

extremely susceptible, we are told, to any
lady wlio wore white kid gloves, that the use
of them at court was strictly prohibited. A
charming picture is called to mind also by
the recollection of a novel by William Black,
in which the guileless heroine all uncon-
sciously captivates the hero the first time he
sets eyes on her, by the graceful, ladylike
manner in which she draws on and fastens
her gloves.

But if the symbolism of gloves and their
old, romantic usages largely have fallen
away, leaving us an article of familiar,
practical, everyday concern, the language of
gloves for us is not dead. When we take
pains to be fittingly costumed for an im-
portant occasion, there is no detail of our
dress which we are more anxious should be
in perfect keeping, than our gloves. To them
still clings a halo of sentiment, part and
parcel of our own dignity. In view of their
history we are justified in our feeling.
"Gloves," says Beck, "outweigh all other
articles of apparel which have been the out-
ward and visible signs of hidden things."

Chapter IV.
HOW GLOVES CAME TO GEENOBLE

"A French town ... in which the product of successive
ages, not without lively touches of the present, are blended
together harmoniously, with a beauty specific — a beauty cis-
alpine and northern — and of which Turner has found the ideal
in certain of his studies of the rivers of France, a perfectly
happy conjunction of river and town being of the essence of
its physiognomy." — Deny U Auxerrois: Walter Pater.

IV/f ANY centuries ago, certain chieftains
■*-^-*- of the AUobroges were inspired to
plant their little village of Cnlaro at the
supremely strategic point of all southern
Gaul. They built it a trifle to the East of the
meeting place of two rivers, the Isere and
the torrent of the Drac; north of them
stretched the high, unbroken wall of the
lower Alps. And there in the sheltered valley
they lived and were protected against incur-
sions of other more warlike tribes — until the
great conqueror of the world poured its
invincible legions over the mountain bar-
riers, and Eome seized the little AUobrogian
defence town to be a colonial outpost of con-
siderable military importance. On the site
of Cularo sprang up the strongly fortified
Gratianopolis, thus called in honor of the
Emperor Gratian who reinforced the walls
begun by Diocletian and Maximian. Later,
with the decline of the Koman power and the
development of the Frankish nation, the
Latin name was abbreviated to Grenoble —
by which the modern city is known to-day as
the chef-lieu of the department of the Isere
in France.

How Gloves Came to Grenoble 31

The town, from its birth to the end of the
sixteenth century, was familiarly styled "la
ville du j)ont/^ the city of the bridge. For
more than a thousand years it commanded
the only point where it was possible to cross
the river Isere. It was also designated "the
old Eoman route town," for it lay on the
natural highroad which linked Italy on the
north with the country of France, the valley
of the Po with that of the Khone. The quaint,
turreted bridge which spanned the river in
mediaeval days provided passage to the Alps
from French soil, and was the gateway to
France for strangers approaching over the
mountains. While its strategic position in
time of war must be apparent, the site of the
city was no less vital to trade and to later
industrial development. As early as 1615
Grenoble was known, far and wide, as "the
city of glovers."

The earliest records of the consuls of
Grenoble, which have been preserved almost
intact since 1244, tell us only of "drapers,
tailors, apothecaries and shoeing-smiths" in
the city; and in 1489 they mention in addi-
tion sailors, pastry cooks, carpenters, bar-
bers— ^but not glovers. Only the weavers,
tanners and curriers of wool and hemp
presage the industrial future. There seems
to be some question of a lone glover in 1328
who gave his services to the dauphin. But
probably this workman made numerous
things for his fellow-citizens, gloves included,
and at the same time was a dealer in furs and
perfumes. In the statutes of the glovers of
Paris, dating from 1190, they are styled "mar-
cJiands-fnaitres-gantiers-parfumeurs/^ master-

32 Gloves, Past and Present

merchants-of-gloves-and-perfumes, and are
accorded the exclusive right to prepare and
sell these luxuries. Furs were usually added
to their stock in trade. But the solitary
glove-maker of 1328 was in no sense a pioneer
of the glove guild in Grrenoble, else had he
apprenticed to himself other workmen, and
the town been filled with glovers fully a
hundred years earlier than it was.

The latter part of the sixteenth century
was a period of war and domestic upheaval
for Grenoble, during which the city govern-
ment was tossed back and forth among
predatory barons until, in 1590, Lesdiguieres,
"the King of the Mountains," took the town
by seige in the name of Henry IV. Under
Lesdiguieres' remarkably public-spirited gov-
ernorship, peace returned, commerce was
resumed, and natural resources, scarcely
recognized before, were drawn upon for
the development of new crafts, whose prod-
ucts, now for the first time, were to be
exported to all parts of France and even
into other countries. Among these new
crafts glove-making instantly sprang into
prominence.

For the raw materials were everywhere
at hand. On the slopes of the mountains,
enclosing like the tiers of a vast amphitheatre
the city seemingly chosen by Nature to
become the mis-en-scene of the glove drama,
millions of wild goats fed. Already the
tanners and tawers had tested the admirable
quality of their skins, and those of the
females in particular were found to be of
the fine, soft variety, peculiarly free from
flaws, so admirably adapted to the making

How Gloves Came to Grenoble 33

of gloves. For the process of tawing tlie ,
skins, moreover, tlie waters of the Isere,
because of their singular purity, were incom-
parable. And in the city itself — its popula-
tion now greatly increased by prosperity and
peace — lived scores of skilled artisans and
their sons, well fitted for the careful cutting
and shaping of gloves; while the women,
equipped with three-cornered needles, quickly
became adepts in sewing gloves by hand.

Other occupations, which now received
special impetus in mediaeval Grenoble, were
the weaving of hemp textiles — ^for hemp was
the most prolific crop of the alluvial river
valleys — paper-making, and the manufacture
of playing-cards ; about 1630, the fruit of the
vineyards on the mountain slopes, was turned
into wine for exportation, and beautiful pot-
tery and tiles were made of the rich clsij de-
posits of the Drac. But of all these crafts,
the one taking first rank from the ver}^ start,
and the one which quickly identified itself with
the town, was gloves. In the municipal acts,
glovers often appear after 1606. In 1619
Claude Honore, a master glover, was elected
consul. And in 1664 a certain skilled work-
man, Jean Charpel, an artist in his line, pro-
claims himself glover to the king.

"One sees the glovers," observes a noted
traveller of those times, "filling all the streets
after 1610, and especially the rues Saint-
Laurent, Perriere, Tres-Cloitre, and the
suburb, together with the curriers, tanners
and tawers, and the combers of hemp."

Although most historians date the close
of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of
modern Europe from the era of the Prot-

34 Gloves, Past and Present

estant Eeformation, spanning tlie period from
1517 to about 1560, Grenoble remained for a
hundred years longer a mediaeval city in
every sense of the word. France continued
a Catholic country, and Grenoble, sequestered
in a southern province, scarcely felt the
disquieting breath of the great religious
revolution which was sweeping mid-Europe.
Its ideas and its civilization changed little,
even while fresh consciousness of its natural
powers and material resources was im-
pregnanting the city with new industries.
The spirit of craftsmanship — that joyous
love of perfection, not only in the fine but
also in the useful arts, which characterized
the Eenaissance — was still the ruling temper
of its citizens; and the guild of glovers, the
most numerous and influential of all the
artisans, particularly personified this civic
character. If we would gain some notion of
the part glove-making actually played in the
lives of these people, and the status of the
glove-craft as it first appeared in mediaeval
Europe, we have only to journey in imagina-
tion to Grenoble in the middle of the seven-
teenth century, on the occasion of the great
annual festival of the glovers.

It is a clear, tranquil morning in the latter
part of July, 1650, and the sun, scarcely an
hour's march above the mountains, is flooding
with almost tropic brilliancy the matchless
paradise of the Dauphine. In its confluence
of rivers and fair valleys, the ancient capital
city, Grenoble, shines in the midst of the
green plain of Gresivaudan. Impossible to
describe the ever-changing charm of the
horizons! — as, from the city itself, the eye

How Gloves Came to Grenoble 35

sweeps eastward, northward, westward, over
range upon range of snow-crowned moun-
tains, under a sky so pure, so glowing, tliat
distant peaks apparently loom near, and the
cool breath of Alpine heights gently smites
the cheek.

Eastward, the prongs, the pinnacles, the
clear-cut outlines of a sierra; it is the chain
of Belledonne. From the devastation of its
summits and terraced slopes, one divines
beneath its summer cloak of verdure con-
cealing only its lower descent, the adamantine
rock moulded for all time by the glaciers of
the ice age. It is indeed the advance guard
of those massive crystal formations, the
veritable backbone of the Alps, which pene-
trate into France from Mont Blanc. On a
morning like this, the Swiss peak itself can
be seen, cleaving the far-away heavens which
overhang Savoy.

In the west the spectacle changes. Beyond
the vast plain of the Drac appears a long,
white cliff, little carved out — a rigid line of
limestone falling sheer to the valley where
lies Grenoble. This is the compact mass of
Vercors, almost impassable. Yet, suddenly,
the cliff makes way; the vale of Furon leaps
through the chasm in the mountain wall. An
ancient road, winding ribbonwise to west-
ward, puts into communication the valley
of the Isere with the wooded brows, the vast
grassy hollows, of the Vercors countryside.

Northward, the limestone reappears in the
Chartreuse. But these mountains, unlike
Vercors, are twisted and broken, resembling
a haK demolished castle with great apertures
and rents in its once impregnable sides.

36 Gloves, Past and Present

Their countless little vales and fertile levels
glow with stream-fed pasturage and with
billowy forests. And everywhere, among the
foothills of the encircling ranges, roam herds
of goats and cattle, without suspicion of the
fate which awaits them with the coming of
the great Fair of the autumn at Grenoble.

On this July morning the old town gleams
like a strange jewel, set in the spacious, lush
meadow lands, stretching league on league,
to the mountains. Vast gardens of hemp
wave to its very walls. Vineyards veil the
nearer hills, and the mulberry dots the
plains of the southeast. The Isere, restless,
ever seeking new outlet, interlaces with a
network of sparkling tributaries the great
expanse of Gresivaudan. All the richness of
the region, all the amazing variety and
beauty with which nature has surrounded
this ancient city, seems concentrated, in the
early hush and radiance, in an act of worship.

Now the sun has penetrated the shadows
below the city walls, and is stealing through
the sinuous, crowded streets, peculiar to
towns which long have been cramped within
the precincts of strong fortifications. The
tiled eaves lean so close one upon another, as
in some places actually to shut out the sky.
If we might fly up like a bird and look down
over the Grenoble of 1650, we would be gaz-
ing upon a confusion of multi-colored roofs,
set at every conceivable angle of picturesque-
ness, and upon a bewildering congregation of
chimneys and chimney-pots. Also, we would
note that the town lay on both banks of the
Isere, connected by a tower bridge, and pro-

How Gloves Came to Grenoble 37

tected on the nortli by the fortress of the
Bastille.

Down in the roughly paved rue Saint-
Laurent the clatter of sabots on the stones
announces that the townspeople are astir.
Shutters are thrown open. Bursts of song
herald the holiday. Crowds of goats, driven
through the streets, are being milked at the
house doors. Then, from the Cathedral of
Notre Dame — ^whose foundations, it is said,
were laid by Charlemagne — the bells pro-
claim with sweet solemnity the call to early
mass. Out of the houses pour the people in
gaily embroidered holiday dress, group join-
ing group with merry exchange of saluta-
tions, until, trooping through the narrow
streets, the colorful procession appears like a
wandering rainbow threading the grey mazes
of the old town.

House after house they pass and shop after
shop, each bearing above the portal a shield
emblazened with the selfsame coat-of-arms —
the heraldic device of the guild of the glovers.
Their occupants, gayest of the gay, fast swell
the throng, with masters and their families
and apprentices — the young boys in the
retinues stealing shy a^lances at the pretty
daughters of their masters, the maidens
covertly returning their admirers' bash-
ful looks.

And now the multitude melts into the
tender gloom of the ancient cathedral; their
voices are hushed in the sweet fluting of the
choir. Above the heads of the kneeling
populace glows the shrine of Saint Anne,
lit with innumerable candles and smothered
in exotic, summer flowers. For this is the

38 Gloves, Past and Present

annual fete-dayjof the motlier of tlie Virgin,
the patron saint of les gantiers. revered by
all good glovers throughout France. At
Grenoble, however, the feast is observed
with greater magnificence than anywhere
else, for the glovers constitute by far the
most numerous body, and the most pros-
perous, of its citizens, and theirs is the crown-
ing festivity of the whole year.

According to monkish legend, the good
Saint Anne made a livelihood while on earth
by knitting gloves. "The knitting saint," in
homely terms of affection the people liked
to call her. They were wont to regard her
as one like themselves — only holier far, for
the great honor God saw fit to confer upon
her — fulfilling her simple task from day to
day, the needles always busy in her fingers.
Their love for her was so strong, indeed, and
so enduring, that early in the nineteenth
centurj^ the glovers ordered a statue of
their saint set up in a public square of
Grenoble, where it may be seen to-day. It
represents the mother of Mary, knitting,
with a half -finished glove in her hand and a
basket of gloves at her feet.

Mass celebrated, the long summer day is
given over to street festivities, to feasting,
dancing and pageantry. The doors of the
glovers' guild-hall, converted into a flower-
adorned banqueting room, stand wide open.
The glovers' shops and houses overflow with
hospitality. As at a great fair, popular
arts and pastimes occupy the squares and
spaces before the public buildings; several
such distractions begin at once and continue
simultaneously. Mountebanks and musi-

How Gloves Came to Grenoble 39

cians, folk dances, Columbines and Pierrots,
flower-girls, venders of bon-bons and petits
joujoux of every description, all commingle
in a laughing, jabbering, singing, whirl-
ing, shimmering, merry-making throng. A
wheeled street-stage, drawn by donkej^s, with
bells jingling about their necks and on their
trappings, makes the rounds of the to\NTi.
Wherever it stops, the gay curtains of the
miniature theatre are parted to disclose the
play-actors who give a mediaeval burlesque
of Don Juan, amid the noisy applause and
high-pitched laughter of the onlookers.

But the great feature of the daj^ is the
pageant of the glovers, in which each master,
with his apprentices and family, has his
special part. This takes the form of a pro-
cession of carnival vans, or floats, drawn by
gorgeously caparisoned horses, and followed
by crowds of young apprentices and work-
men and workmaidens on foot, who enact in
pantomime the various processes of glove-
making as it was practiced in mediaeval days.
Beautiful kids and chamois from the moun-
tains, wreathed with blossoms as though for
sacrifice, are led by troops of peasant garcons
in blue smocks. The cutters advance, rhyth-
mically jingling their shears ; and the needle-
women move by more slowly, drawing their
shining implements in perfect unison through
the unfinished gloves they carry in their
hands. A spice of rivalry enlivens the exhibi-
tion, for every master-glover has taken pains
that his own personal retinue shall be as
large and as brilliant as possible. Every
apprentice is fired with the desire to so com-
port himself as to be an honor to his master

40 . Gloves, Past and Present

— and, incidentally, to attract tlie admira-
tion of the maiden of the house he hopes
to win.

Angelus finds the merry-makers still
romping, singing, dancing; a little wearily
the couples break apart, and the townsfolk
once more flock through the streets, trans-
formed in the afterglow to running rivers
of gold, and are lost in the stilly dusk of the
cathedral. And now the tapers gleam like
stars upon the altar of Saint Anne, and the
fading flowers send forth a sweet, benumbing
perfume, as heads are bowed to receive the
evening benediction. On the rough, uneven
stones of the floor they kneel, imploring in
their hearts the good saint who protects and
prospers all devout glovers, that the craft
may w^ax stronger with every year in the
city of Grenoble.

So we see an entire community uniting in
a great religious, civic, industrial and social
festival to celebrate and re-consecrate the
craft of glove-making. The place of honor
this calling held in former times is unique and
striking. In the chapters which follow we
shall observe how gloves — and especially the
gloves of Grenoble— have sustained their early
tradition through three hundred years of
political vicissitude and commercial struggle.

Chapter V.

THE GLOVERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY

"Lo, the old order changeth!"

TJTOW the glove craft of Grenoble spon-
-■- -^ taneously sprang up, took firm root and
grew until it controlled, to a great degree,
the fortunes of that city, has been shown in
the foregoing brief summary of events. The
many phases of life with which glove-making
was bound up in mediaeval, days, its social
and economic importance to the community
and its pre-eminence among the early indus-
tries, cannot have failed to be apparent.
From about 1600 the chief *city of the
Dauphine underwent an astonishingly rapid
development.

But, if the seventeenth century was little
short of phenomenal in glove history, glove-
making in Grenoble was not fated to become
one of the leading enterprises of the world
without a struggle. The hundred years that
followed were at once the most sterile and
the most fecund in the annals of the trade —
and, for that matter, the same is equally
true of the eighteenth century as regards its
bearing upon the destinies of Europe.
Destructive of immediate results and of con-
temporary prosperity, this era which endured
the birth throes of modern states and the
upheavals of the Revolution, was, neverthe-
less, big with prophetic good. And it is to
the everlasting honor of the glovers of
Grenoble that they bore their part in this

42 Gloves, Past and Present

vast social and political movement, wMch
temporarily threatened death to their per-
sonal interests, with their eyes fixed, not
upon gain, but upon those high ideals and
principles to which their faith clung, even in
the midst of business paralysis and social
chaos.

While the flame of the Eevolution did not
break forth until nearly the close of the
century, the spirit of modernity and unrest
attacked the French people fully a hundred
years before the fall of the Bastille. In
Grenoble the transition from the old order
to the new was anticipated as early as 1691,
in response to a proclamation of the king
that the business of the country be taxed to
refill the royal treasury.

After the brilliant victories of his early
reign, Louis XIV. had suffered severe re-
verses. He was gravely in need of money to
repair the military organization. New
resources must somehow be found, and that
immediately. The only adequate answer
which presented itself took the form of taxa-
tion imposed upon the business interests of
the realm. The glovers of Grenoble, accord-
ingly, in 1691, organized themselves into the
Corporation des Gantiers, or Corporation
of Glovers, to determine how heavily their
industry should be taxed in support of the
regime. While they felt loyally obliged to
contribute all they were able to the king's
cause, hj the very act of their organizing and
by virtue of the funds they furnished, they
became masters at home, respected by the
monarch, independent and self-governing.
Their sacrifice of money to the government

The Glovers in The Eighteenth Century 43

had, in the same hour, bought them their
freedom in all that pertained to their local
affairs.

The importance of this initial association
for an economic purpose scarcely can be
overestimated. The Corporation later proved
the unit of strength which was to render the
glovers, as a body, invincible through the
endless chain of vicissitudes, political, moral
and industrial, which all but swept away,
in the next hundred years, the totality of
progress gained in the seventeenth century.
In 1590 Grenoble had not 10,000 inhabitants.
In 1692 Vauban values the population at
33,000. During the seventeenth century, then,
its numbers had more than tripled, and this
must needs strike one as the more remark-
able inasmuch as city life in that epoch was
little developed. Such growth, as we have
seen, went hand in hand with the evolution
of its industries. In 1692, Vauban wrote:

"The city contains a very numerous bour-
geoisie, and is filled with a high quality of
of artisans which furnish a great variety of
products to the largest part of the province.
Its increase has been such that it actually is
bursting out of its new ramparts. The city
has dire need of expansion; all ranks of peo-
ple demand it irresistibly."

In 1700 Vauban submitted a plan for
enlarging extensively the city proper. This
was not to be realized, however, until one
hundred and forty years later. Already the
tide had turned. The people were passing
out through the gates of Grenoble, never to
return. The eighteenth century was destined
to be such a period of sacrifice and retarda-

44 Gloves, Past and Present

tion, in a material sense, as the town liad
never known, even in the pestilence-ridden,
war-mad days which preceded the advent of
Lesdiguieres.

The explanation of the exodus which
ushered in the new century leads us back,
for a moment, to certain events which, until
now, we have not had occasion to mention.
A great blessing to Grenoble in the past had
been the Edict of Nantes, by which Henry lY.,
in 1598, had put an end to the religious wars.
It had paved the way for the uninterrupted
peace of the seventeenth century, and thus
for the efflorescence of Grenoble's crafts and
industries. The Eevocation of the Edict of
Nantes by Louis XIV., in 1685, really marks
the turning point in that city's prosperity.
The testimony of contemporaries confirms
this opinion, and the verdict of those living
twenty years later in the famous glove town,
assigns to the same cause the steady shrink-
ing of the population during the second
decade after the Eevocation.

The sudden withdrawal of religious liberty
cost France three hundred thousand of her
people who emigrated to Germany, Holland,
and other Protestant countries. A large
element in these emigrations were the skilled
artisans. Grenoble alone was deprived of
nearly three thousand persons, among them
the family of the Lesdiguieres, many others
of the nobility and the gentlefolk, and a large
body of masters and apprentices.

In 1705 the city lost five hundred indi-
viduals of the religious profession and
seventy-three families of "gentilhommes,"
whose disappearance was no triflmg matter,

The Glovers in The Eighteenth Century 45

as these personages liad been liberal patrons
of the glovers, and it was their wealth which,
in great part, had made business move.
Industry in Grenoble, on every hand, was in
a grievous state — but especially glove-mak-
ing, the home demand being suddenly
removed, and foreign trade little developed
at that period.

Such was the deplorable effect of the
Kevocation. The glovers, however, proved
themselves possessed of almost unbelievable
powers of recuperation. In 1729 we find the
sale of Grenoble gloves spreading rapidly in
Germany, Switzerland, Savoy and Piedmont.
Foreign trade steadily increased, despite
the fact that the population of Grenoble
remained, virtually, at a standstill. But
trade abroad brought also foreign competi-
tion. While the Kevocation had actually
served Grenoble, indirectly, by causing the
ruin of her rivals in France — Blois; and
Vendome, which could not support the drain
of their emigrations; and especially Grasse,
which was seriously crippled by loss of its
master glovers and the departure of most of
its families of wealth — these selfsame emigra-
tions doubtless stimulated the manufacture
of gloves outside France. Many of those
who had served their apprenticeship in
Grenoble, and master glovers holding the
secrets of her arts, probably became rivals, in
other lands, of the city they once had called
their o^ti.

All this complicated subject of commer-
cial relations, the advantages and disad-
vantages of foreign trade, and the history
of the glove market, will be treated separately

46 Gloves, Past and Present

and in detail in the chapter which follows.
For the present, let us keep to onr main issue
— the vicissitudes in general of gloves and
glove-makers in the leading glove city of the
world during the stormy j^ears of the
eighteenth century.

From 1737 to 1746 we learn that the life
of the Grenoble glovers — on the surface, at
least — was comparatively monotonous. The
manufacture made some progress, but the
possibilities of expansion were not such as
to stimulate very keenly those at the head of
things. The masters and the workers lived
without disagreement, apparently; the time-
honored rules of the craft continued to be
observed on both sides. In the Corporation
a public magistrate managed the affairs of
the association; the glovers themselves, it
would seem, being too indifferent to take an
active part. Prosperity appears to have
been just about commensurate with the needs
of the Corporation.

And yet, beneath this evident torpor, a
vast inquietude was moving, like an earth-
quake under the sea. A fermentation of
social discontent — bred by the philosophy of
the times, by the glaring disparity between
the ruling class and the working people, the
latters' distrust of the morals and the
assumed authority of the former, by the
teachings of freemasonry and the trades
unions — was slowly gathering momentum.
In working centres — conspicuously in Gre-
noble and throughout the Dauphine — ^the
wealthy people were constantly framing re-
monstrances, begging the Royal Council to
curb the mutterings of the proletariat.

The Glovers in The Eighteenth Century 47

Tlie outbreak of the Seven Years' War, in
1756, increased the industrial depression by
cutting off a part of the foreign demand, par-
ticularly for gloves, and by calling away
from France many men for the army. In
1759 a heavy tax was imposed by the crown
upon skins. This proved the last straw. It
meant that skins for tawing were hardly to
be had, and thus the glovers were without
materials for their manufacture. Their irri-
tation was acute, and the parliament of
Grenoble was obliged to carry before the
king the united protestations of the Corpora-
tion des Gantiers.

This defence in behalf of the Grenoble
glovers was at once an act of justice and an
achievement of admirable foresight. The
parliament did more than merely present
the honest grievances of the industry. With a
commendable vigor and pride it laid before
the king a constructive measure which was
to become the occasion in France of an
economic revolution in the skin and glove
trades. This was the beginning of the break-
ing down of custom duties on gloves between
provinces. After a few years the internal
taxes on this product were entirely abolished.
Thus vanished all unfair competition at
home, and neighboring glove cities ceased
to come under the title of "the foreigner."
At the same time, the selling of skins from
province to province became free and general.
Great fairs were held by the skin merchants,
the tawers and tanners, for the benefit of all
the surrounding region. Exportation of skins
decreased, while home manufacturers rejoiced
in the abundance of excellent materials.

48 Gloves, Past and Present

The Corporation of Glovers, however, suf-
fered meanwliile from the growing restlessness
and vague ambitions of its workers. The old
regulations were gradually and inevitably
giving way before the awakening conscious-
ness of a new race of wage-earners, grown
almost morbidly distrustful of vested au-
thority. The Dauphine was afflicted with the
bad example of many of its aristocrats. The
nobility was indeed unworthy of its rank.
The pervading restiveness and insubordina-
tion of the working class sprang out of a
deep, instinctive resentment against the pre-
vailing order. Of course, the first point of
friction lay between the apprentices and the
masters.

Though the severities of apprenticeship
were modified, the former good faith between
these two was irretrievably lost. Fear of
foreign competition faded into insignificance
before this intimate situation — the suspicious
attitude toward one another of masters and
workmen. Such was bound to be the price of
a last, furious assault upon the mouldering
ramparts of long-decayed feudalism.

The master glovers, on their side, shared
in the social discontent, and participated in
the long drawn-out struggle between the
aristocracy and the bourgeoisie to determine
which of these should predominate in the
local tribunals. The glovers of Grenoble con-
tended that they, as an organized body of
people, no longer merely having a trade, but
enjoying also a social position encroaching
on the importance of the man of the robe, the
magistrate and the attorney, should have the
largest voice in the making of the laws. Their

The Glovers in The Eighteenth Century 49

product, they argued, was bringing money
into France from England, Germany, Switzer-
land, and otlier northern countries, where
more than one-half of their gloves were
sold. In 1775, it is stated, out of 100,000
dozen pairs of gloves made in Grenoble,
60,000 were on commission for the foreigner.
Naturally enough these manufacturers and
merchants felt that over an idle, and even
vicious, aristocracy, their opinions and
practical needs should lead in shaping public
legislation.

Further, bitter contention involved the
business men of Grenoble with the lawyers
of that city, for the latter persisted in look-
ing down upon plain citizens not bred in their
profession, and in excluding them from pub-
lic affairs. In 1789 all glovers were shut out
of the city council. In view of the fact that
they "gave work daily to more than eight
thousand persons, and thus enabled to live
one-third of the population of Grenoble," the
glovers resented bitterly this deliberate in-
dignity from "les hommes du robe." It onl}^
fired them the more to throw themselves into
the great conflict ahead; to j)rove that, even
if they could not discourse so eloquently upon
public matters as those who had insulted
them, "at least they knew how to talk less,
act more, and give all they possessed" to the
cause of justice.

Thus, with the greatest crisis, perhaps, of
modern times approaching, the glovers found
themselves, workmen and masters alike,
drawn almost before they knew it, into the
very heart of the maelstrom. Industry itself
was at a standstill. Nay, it was slipping

50 Gloves, Past and Present

backward; for in the midst of such internal
suppression of terrible passions, such scorch-
ing hatreds, and ideals to set the world on
fire, what footing could there be for the arts
of peace?

And then the black cloud burst. Grenoble
was drained of men whom the actual erup-
tion of the Eevolution forced to flee its walls.
It was emptied of soldiers departing for the
centre of action. The Eevolution put out of
business many of those following religious
vocations, whose offices now were enlisted in
grimmer callings; it wiped out of existence
the gentlemen of leisure. There had been
many of these latter in the beautiful, old city
of the Dauphine.

And who was there left to wear gloves, in
all the length and breadth of France? What
was to become, in such an hour, of an industry
which addressed itself to the pleasure-loving
rich, and to the privileged classes? The rich?
There were no more rich. Privilege — the
title, the robe, the gown? Lost off in the
wild scurry of fugitives! In the appalling
reaction, such a harmless mark of elegance
as the glove, became, so to speak, branded
with horror. To be seen in gloves in those
days was to be marked for a criminal against
mankind ; to be suspected of being a Eoyalist,
a lover of the king, a Judas to the People.

So we have the spectacle of the glovers,
"plain men of business," throwing over every
material advantage, to hurl themselves and
all they possessed into the French Eevolu-
tion. "The Eevolution!" cries M. Xavier
Eoux in his invaluable book, The Glovers of
Qrenohle, published for private circulation

The Glovers in The Eighteenth Century 51

in tliat city in 1887, "they themselves desired
it. They sacrificed to it their money and their
effort." Again he says :

"It would seem as though, in their eyes,
there were no longer practical 'interests';
there were only ideas. Never, perhaps, as
then, has a whole people forgotten its indus-
try, it business relations, and suffered itself
to be moved by principle alone."

And yet one spectacle more remains — the
silent factories on the Isere. For the first
time since the founding of its main industry
and source of prosperity in the past, we
behold the paradox of a gloveless Grenoble!

Chapter VI.
GLOVES IN MANY MAETS

"She of the open soul and open door,
With room about her hearth for all mankind."
— Trade: James Russell Lowell.

THE first glove-makers in Europe, we may
suppose — certainly tlie first, skilled in
that art, to work together in brotherhoods —
were the monks of the early Middle Ages. In
common with many other old-established
handicrafts, the glove trade is deeply in-
debted to the Church. On this point, William
S. Beck, the leading English authority on
glove lore of thirty-five years ago, has
summed up the conditions most interestingly
and clearly. He says :

"Muscular Christianity is no new doctrine.
Faith and works were once literally united
in a secular sense. Before corruptions crept
in, and while monastic establishments main-
tained the simple lines on which they had
been founded, their inmates were the most
skillful and industrious of artisans. Weav-
ing, illuminating, gardening, embroidery,
woodwork — these and many other occupa-
tions were practiced sedulously by the holy
friars. The original idea of the founders of
these institutions was to bring together a
company of Christians who were workers.
Benedict enjoins his followers to fight
valiantly against idleness, the canker of truth.

" ^Therefore,' he prescribes, 'the brethren
must be occupied in the labor of the hands,
and again at certain times in divine study.'

Gloves in Many Marts 53

"The brethren not only practiced," says
Beck, "but taught. The monastery became
as much the centre of industry as of intel-
lect ; and religion was made an active worker
with commerce in furthering national inter-
ests. The efforts of the brethren often
resulted in raising local manufactures to
great excellence, so that they obtained more
than local celebrity. To the monks of Bath,
for instance, is attributed much of the fame
which the stout, woolen cloths of the west
of England yet enjoy; and under their active
auspices, we are told, the manufacture was
introduced, established and brought to per-
fection. In their commercial curriculum
glove-making was certainly included, as well
as the dressing of leather."

As early as 790, as has been mentioned in
a preceding chapter, Charlemagne granted to
the abbots and monks of Sithin in ancient
France unlimited right of hunting the deer
for skins of which to make gloves, girdles
and covers for books. These gloves, made in
the monasteries, assuredly were worn, not
only by the higher orders of the clergy, but
by the king and his nobles. They may have
been a direct means of revenue among the
monks; in any case, they were a favor
exchanged for the patronage and support of
the feudal lords in maintaining monastic
property.

Needless to say, gloves were one of the
luxuries of early trade and barter, and it
was a late period before they became, to any
extent, an article of common exchange. As
gifts to kings and personages of high rank,
they were borne from country to country, and

54 Gloves, Past and Present

thus, to a limited degree, were put into circu-
lation. The Earl of Oxford, on one occasion,
curried favor with Queen Elizabeth by pre-
senting Her Majesty with beautiful, per-
fumed gloves which he, personally, had
brought to her from Italy. The Queen, we
are told, was so vain of this particular pair
of gloves that she had her portrait painted
in them. Little by little, as the privilege of
wearing gloves spread from sovereign to sub-
ject, their trade was popularized, and the
glove market, in the modern sense, grew up
in response to the increasing demand.

In France, glove-making as an industry,
independent of the monasteries, was certainly
well established in the twelfth century. In
1190 we find the Grlovers of Paris organized
under a settled code of statutes received
from the king. Across the channel, gloves
are first mentioned, as an incorporated trade,
in Scotland, where the glovers formed a com-
pany called "The Glovers of Perth" during
the reign of Robert III., who figures in
Scott's Fair Maid of Perth, and ruled between
1390 and 1406. This company was principally
employed in making buck and doe-skin gloves.
Thence the trade spread over Scotland, but
it did not long hold its importance. "Dundee"
gloves enjoyed a picturesque fame; but Hull
remarks, in 1834, that "they had little more
than the term to recommend them." Indeed,
the greater part of them were made in Wor-
cester, England, and were sewn cheaply,
with cotton, instead of silk. A few gloves
were also turned out in Montrose, Scotland;
the leather for these, however, was sent from
London.

Gloves in Many Marts 55

In London, the glove trade had existed for
many centuries, and originally was carried
on in connection witli the making of leather
doublets and breeches. Deer and sheep skins
were used chiefly; but after the introduction
of kid gloves into England from France, the
former country began to make kid gloves
also, under the name of "London town-made
gloves," and thus to follow the more fas-
tidious fashions of the French. The glovers
of London were incorporated in the four-
teenth year of the reign of Charles I., who,
on the sixth of September, 1638, granted
them a charter, in which they were styled:
"The Masters, Wardens and Fellowship of
the Worshipful Company of Glovers of the
City of London." As early as 1464, however,
they had received their coat-of-arms. Even
so, the Paris glovers must be acceded ijrioritj^
in importance, as their statutes date from
1190. Moreover, it has justly been said that
gloves "came over with the Conqueror," and
were really introduced into England from
France. Previous to 1066, the glove produced
hj the Saxons was a rude and shapeless thing,
while the Normans brought with them the
clever prototype on which the future glove of
England was destined to be modelled.

Very early in their history the English
began to experience commercial rivalrj'^ with
the French, and one of the first products to
be strongly affected, to England's detriment,
was gloves. As far back as the reign of
Edward IV., in 1462, we find the English
glove trade protected by prohibitory^ laws.
These laws, in later years, must have become
obsolete, as they do not appear ever to have

56 GrLOVES, Past and Present

been repealed, and foreign gloves were
imported into the country soon after tlie
Reformation. In 1564, however, England
forbade any gloves from abroad to enter her
ports. Nothing was said about the raw
materials being brought from other lands;
but France saw fit to curtail the shipment of
kid skins outside her boundaries, and thus
the English were thrown entirely upon their
own resources. French kid gloves — whose
quality, after all, it has been impossible to
equal in other countries — continued to be
smuggled into the British realm to a greater
extent, we may believe, than the authorities
then realized. The titled people, accustomed
to having the best of everything, infinitely
preferred the French luxury to the home-
made article ; and so, it was secretly procured.
But, generally speaking, after 1564, the Eng-
lish manufactured their own gloves from
native skins, and the trade increased and
became prosperous.

On the occasion of the granting of the
charter in 1638, certain abuses had crept into
the industry, and it was to obviate these con-
ditions that the document was demanded anH
granted by the king. It reads :

"Whereas, by an humble petition presented
unto us by our loveing subjects, living in and
about our Cities of London and Westminster,
using the arte, trade or mistery of Glovers,

"We have been informed that their
families are about four hundred in num-
ber, and upon them depending about three
thousand of our subjects, who are much
decayed and impoverished by reason of the
great confluence of persons of the same arte.

Gloves in Many Marts 57

trade or mistery into our said Cities of
London and Westminster, from all parts of
our kingdome and dominion of Wales, tliat,
for the most parte, have scarcely served any
time thereunto, vi^orking of gloves in cham-
bers and corners, and taking apprentices
under them, many in number, as well women
as men, that become burdensome to the
parishes wherein they inhabit, and are a
disordered multitude, living without proper
government, and making naughtie and de-
ceitful gloves: And that our subjects afore-
said, that lawfully and honestly use the
said arte, trade or mistery, are, by these
means, not only prejudiced at home, but the
reputation the English had in foreign parts,
where they were a great commoditie and
held in goode esteeme, is much impaired. And
also, that by the engrossing of leather into
a few men's hands, our said subjects are
forced to buye bad leather at excessive rates,
to their further impoverishment . . . ." etc.
. . . etc.

In view of such abuses as these, the
London Company was given very exclusive
powers, one of which was "to search for and
destroy bad or defective skins, leather or
gloves."

The name of the first Master of the
Glovers' Company has come down to us in
certain parish registers of the seventeenth
century, in which he is mentioned as "William
Smart, of the parish of St. Giles, Cripple-
gate, Glover^ In his parish the trade seems
to have been especially flourishing.

Perhaps the London industry labored
under greater difficulties, on the whole, than

58 Gloves, Past and Present

glove-making elsewhere. It liad constantly
to contend against tlie secret importation of
French gloves into the capital city, and also
to maintain its superiority over the imita-
tions of the country manufacturers; for, in
England, as in France, competition between
the various glove centres was intense. Many
London manufacturers, because they could
not make their ventures pay, actually became
importers and dealers in French gloves —
either underhandedly, or openly, as the laws
of the land would permit. Invariably they
found this greatly to their advantage, since
the price of French gloves was low, and the
manner in which the duty could be evaded, at
that date, ridiculously simple.

Despite the feelings and the best efforts
of those Englishmen who sought to foster
and strengthen the home glove trade, the
prohibitory laws remained always more or
less lax — chiefly because the aristocracy and
gentry preferred the French glove, and, for
the most part, were not interested in the
welfare of English glovers and artisans —
until, in 1825, the ban on imported gloves
was officially removed. The effect upon
France was electrical. The British ports
were flung open to her at a time when
Grenoble, Paris and her other glove cities
were swinging back on the crest of the new
wave of industrial prosperity and progress
which had received its momentum in the
days of the Empire — a period which wit-
nessed the revival of much of the former
elegance of France, so lately eclipsed by the
Revolution. In 1832, the legal importation
of French gloves into England was 1,516,663

Gloves in Many Marts 59

pairs. As many more, in that same jesiY, we
may believe, were also smuggled into tlie
country by the old methods. To France — and
particularly to Grenoble — the English change
of policy was one of the greatest boons which
could have befallen a commercially ambitious
people.

To English glovers, on the contrary, the
results were anything but fortunate. A brief
survey of the vicissitudes of the English
glove towns may serve to show how dearly
the glove industry was forced to pay for the
new national system of Free Trade.

In Worcester, close rival of London, the
glove craft is known to have existed since
1571, and in 1661 the Glovers' Company of
that city was incorporated. Here an elabo-
rate manufacture w^as carried on, including
"Venetian" gloves, made in imitation of those
originally imported from Venice. As long as
French gloves were not freely admitted, the
beaver gloves of Worcester also enjoyed great
prosperity ; but with the re-importation of the
former, beaver gloves went out of fashion,
and the Worcester makers turned their atten-
tion to alum leather gloves which were pro-
duced in large quantities until 1825.

The complete removal of the prohibitory
regulations, however, was fatal to this last-
named article, which could not hope to com-
pete with the far finer product from abroad.
From that date, the English manufacture
rapidly decayed, despite every effort of the
masters and the work people to readjust their
difficulties. How hard Worcester itself was
hit, is shown by a statement given by the
Committee of Operative Glovers in 1832. It
reads :

60 Gloves, Past and Present

"There are in Worcester 120 master manu-
facturers, wlio have been in the habit of
making, upon an average, one hundred dozens
of gloves each, per week, which would be
12,000 per week for the whole; but they are
now making something under one-third of
that number. By this means, about ;^ 3,000
(or $15,000) per week is taken out of circula-
tion in wages alone ; which money used imme-
diately to find its way into the hands of the
retail trader in the purchase of articles of
consumption."

In the year 1825, immediately before the
introduction of French gloves, there were
few, if any, work people idle in Worcester,
and the trade was prosperous. On Janu
ary 10, 1832, out of one thousand men, the
state of employment stood as follows:

In full employ 113

Partial employ 465

Unemployed 422

Of the 465, many did not average more than
two shillings, sixpence, per week. The num-
ber of children totally dependent upon these
one thousand men was 1,748. The poor-
houses were overrun, and large sums for
relief were paid out of the public pocket.
Worcester, the chief glove city outside Lon-
don, continued to decline.
-In Woodstock the Glovers never were
incorporated, but the manufacture was pur-
sued from a remote period. Some of the
finest English craftsmen labored here to pro-
duce a very beautiful glove; and that they
attained to a high degree of perfection is
certified by the fact that the University of

Gloves in Many Marts 61

Oxford, in 1616, presented James I. with,
"very riclie gloves" in Woodstock. Queen
Elizabeth also received gloves from the
Woodstock makers in one of her festal
"progresses." In those times only English
deer, sheep and lamb skins were used in the
Woodstock shops. Since 1825, however, and
the introduction of French kid skins, most
of their ancient prestige has been lost.

Hexham furnished a peculiar glove — so
long-established that we may regard it as
having descended unbrokenly from the old
Saxon gluf — called the "Hexham tan glove,"
made from native sheep skins. The gaunt-
lets attached to suits of armor were made in
the same style; and many centuries ago it
was an important trade in that place. But
even its modern substitute fell into disuse
about 1830.

York "tans" were popular in the days of
protection. Beaver gloves occupied 3,000
persons in Hereford, until the sudden indus-
trial collapse of that town in 1825. Ludlow
turned out 70,000 dozen pairs of gloves
annually, and employed one-fifth of its i)opu-
lation in that trade, collecting the skins
from Scotland. In 1832, "not six men," we
read, were employed in glove-making there.
Kington was another glove centre which
failed before the middle of the nineteenth
century. The glove workmen of Leominster
numbered 900 in 1825; and on the eve of
legal re-importation its factories were among
the busiest in the kingdom. In 1831, its
shops were deserted by all but 163 artisans.

A community whose associations with
gloves are particularly interesting, was

62 Gloves, Past and Present

Yeovil, where tlie craft was established as
early as the middle of the sixteenth century,
giving employment for hundreds of years to
peasant workmen and workwomen living over
an area of some twenty miles. At one period
the number of its masters, cutters and sewers
was 20,000, and about 300,000 dozens of gloves
of all kinds were produced annually. An
ancient folk song of the Yeovil glove-women
has recently been revived by the Fuller sis-
ters, to simple harp accompaniment, just as
it used to be sung, as a "round" or "part
song," by the diligent sewers as they drew
their triangular needles in and out of their
work. It is very quaint and tuneful, mark-
ing the time of the motions in sewing ; and its
rhythm, no doubt, facilitated the speed and
ease with which the women plied their task.

Yeovil was famous for its military gloves
for many years. Later, a fine imitation of
kid gloves was made there; but these were
crushed out by the return of the genuine
foreign product. An idyllic industrial com-
munity was transformed almost over night
into a desperate and dangerous populace,
demanding by force the means of bread-win-
ning which so suddenly had been denied it.
Hull tells us that to quell these disturbances,
two troops of dragons were kept continually
in the town, where, a few years before, "a
horse-soldier would have been looked upon
as a sort of centaur by the lower orders of
the people."

A territory, not yet mentioned, which was
closely bound up with the prosperity of the
glove trade in England, was Ireland.
Limerick, Dublin and Cork formerly were

Gloves in Many Marts 63

noted glove cities. The "Limericks" — a glove
named for its birthplace — were of exquisite
texture, and were greatly in favor among
the aristocratic English for their property
of rendering the hand of the wearer smooth
and soft. These gloves were made of "morts"
or "slinks," the skin of the abortive, or very
young, calf, lamb or kid. Some of them were
so beautifully delicate that they could be
enclosed in a walnut shell. "No glove ever
exceeded the Limerick in beauty," declares
Hull. Skin collectors went all over Ireland,
and the trade was a great boon to the peas-
antry. But after 1825, the skins were no
longer worth the trouble of collecting, and a
great resource of the country was lost.

To one who views these facts it must be
apparent that England never was intended
to compete with France in the skilled making
of the finest gloves. She could content her
people with the home product only by exclud-
ing all foreign gloves; and even then, the
privileged, who could bribe the government,
insisted upon the secret importation of gloves
from France. To be sure, the wave of protec-
tion rose high in 1462, in 167i5 and in 1744;
but, in every event there came a reaction, as
far as the complete prohibition of gloves was
concerned. Instead of supplying her own
colonies with the home product, England
even imported gloves from France, stored
them in her warehouses, and then shipped
them at an ad valorem duty to her East
Indian possessions!

The truth of the matter was, French glove-
makers early had won the first place in
Europe. Struggle as she might, it is exceed-

64 Gloves, Past and Present

ingly doubtful whether her rival across the
Channel ever could have equalled her pres-
tige. In the heavier varieties of leather
gloves, English makers did enjoy — and still
do to-day — an enviable reputation; but here
their fame stops. England had neither the
inventive skill nor the natural climate to pro-
duce the perfect kid glove, for which France
is so celebrated.

In France itself, we already have traced in
the course of other chapters, more or less
definitely, the development of the glove
market. Particularly we have followed the
fortunes of the trade in Grenoble, as being,
most distinctively, the glove city of the world.
We have seen Grenoble guarding her precious
art from "the foreigner"; holding herself on
the defensive against other French cities, of
which, under the old laws and internal
duties, she had no choice but to be jealous.
We have noted how the Revocation ruined
many of her neighbors, even while it stimu-
lated competition beyond the confines of
France. In the seventeenth century, Paris
and Grenoble enjoyed the monoply of the
glove markets of Europe. During the
eighteenth century, however, these cities
began to cope with Germany, Italy, Austria,
and even Russia, in glove-making. The vexed
question of the exportation of skins was
settled to the advantage of the manu-
facturers at home, and unnatural rivalry
between the different French cities was
smoothed away.

The Revolution saw the entire industry,
apparently, snuffed out. And yet, so deeply
had the glove trade taken root in French soil

Gloves in Many Marts 65

that, at the first breatli of the revival of cul-
ture and refined manners, under the patron-
age of the Empress Josephine, this ancient
art again sprang into being; and, like a
miracle, the resurrection of the glovers was
complete. 'At this point the great clients of
to-day appeared — the United States, recon-
structing itself, and building up its com-
merce with the foremost marts of the world.
The Americans demanded, among other
things, the most beautiful gloves of Europe.

Grenoble, on recovering from the shock of
the Kevolution, the long, dark days of the
Terror, found, to her chagrin, that she had
a formidable rival in Paris. Naturally, the
capital city, the centre of the court, was the
first place to feel the effects of the renaissance
of glove-making. Paris swarmed with
workers, and could get more sewers at lower
wages than Grenoble contained within its
gates. In 1810, however, the southern city
began to reach out into the surrounding
country for apprentices; and quickly the
peasant people responded by the hundreds
and thousands. Many of them flocked to the
town, filling the places left destitute by the
violent events of the last twenty years; and,
for miles about, sewing was portioned out,
to be done in the small villages and in
isolated households scattered among the
mountains. Grazing and goat rearing once
more became a profitable occupation.

It proved a long, proud pull — ^but the
glovers of Grenoble were not to be daunted.
At last that city's ancient prestige was
restored. The War of 1870, instead of being
a set-back, was really a help; for the remote-

66 Gloves, Past and Present

ness of Grenoble from tlie seat of war per-
mitted her to continue working, and orders
from England and America— wliicli, ordi-
narily, might have sought other channels —
she filled in her factories and home shops. In
1872, to be sure, Grenoble, and all the
French glovers, suddenly found themselves
up against tremendous, and totally unex-
pected, competition with Saxony, Austria,
Luxembourg and Belgium. These countries
had devised a means of placing on the market
remarkably handsome lambskin gloves, which
rivalled in appearance the fine French kid
product and sold for far less. But a few
years of obstinately insisting upon the high
prices they always had exacted for their
goods, soon taught the French manufac-
turers the necessity of finding a less expensive
kid; and with the development of new
mechanical inventions for cheaper cutting
and sewing, Grenoble presently regained her
firm footing.

If the seventeenth century must be con-
sidered little short of marvellous as regards
glove-making in Grenoble — and it may be
compared, indeed, to the first five years of a
child's life, in which he makes, proportion-
ately, his most astonishing progress — the
achievements of the industry in the nineteenth
century, if possible, have been even greater.
Apart from the facts of the vicissitudes the
trade had had to face, the battles it had
waged — and won — all the vast accoutre-
ments of modern machinery and scientific
appliances now come into play. Also, a great,
inventive genius has arisen, destined to
revolutionize the art of glove-making.

Chapter VII.
FEOM AETIST TO AKTISAN

"There is nothing impossible to industry." — Clio, one of
the Seven Wise Men of Greece.

UNTIL now we liave been dealing with
revolutionar}^ movements in the political
sense, and, indirectly, their effects upon the
glove trade. We presently have to consider
the great revolution within the industry
itself, which came with the introduction of
machinery in the nineteenth century, whereby
productive labor was completely transformed
and glove-making permanently modernized.

Earl,y in the nineteenth century, the fac-
tory system was firmly established in Eng-
land. The French, however, held out against
the system, in great measure, as might be
expected of a people who recently had fought
so passionately for individual liberty. Child
labor was an evil against which the French
economists were vehement in their protesta-
tions. Apprenticing the young was an
entirely different matter, without doubt,
from enslaving children from dawn to dark
in mills, where they were compelled to repeat
unceasingly some mechanical detail of the
process, with very little hope of enlighten-
ment or advancement in their occupation.
The French, progressive but not greedy,
sought to maintain industry upon a humane
basis.

With the revival of glove-making at the
time of the First Empire, the honored methods
of craftsmanship still were in practice.
Gloves were made entirely by hand, and the

68 Gloves, Past and Present

glove-maker — whetlier designer or workman
— was, in the true sense, an artist. Patterns,
cut from thin boards, were laid on the leather,
and the shape traced with lead pencil. These
designs were cut out with a pair of long
scissors. The parts were then sewed together.
In order to keep the stitches uniform, the
pieces were placed between a pair of jaws,
the holding edges of which were serrated
with fine saw teeth; and the sewer by pass-
ing the needle forwards and backwards
between each of these teeth secured neat,
even-length stitches. The embroidery on the
backs was done with very great care, and
necessarily consumed much time. Although
these gloves possessed the charm peculiar to
most hand-made articles, the matter of fit
was purely accidental, for it depended partly
upon the elasticity of the leather and even
more upon the skill of the maker.

In point of skill no glove workers in the
world at that time surpassed those of
Grenoble. Relying wholly upon the art of
her workmen and the dexterity of her sew-
ing women, the ancient glove city still set the
standard of excellence for the rest of Europe
— even in the years when she was not in a
position to turn out so many gloves, nor sell
her product so cheaply, as Paris. Though
forced for some time to take secondary place,
quantitatively, Grenoble never yielded to her
rivals in the matter of quality. If she could
not produce the most gloves, she at least
would furnish the market with the best gloves.

The finest tawed skins to be had were
prepared for the Grenoble glovers in the mills
at Millau and Annonay. Their value excelled

From Autist to Artisan 69

that of any skins tawed by foreigners. On
this fact, however, the prestige of the
Grenoble glove did not rest. These beautiful
skins were sent abroad to manufacturers all
over Europe, so, in themselves, they did not
create a monopoly in favor of the city really
responsible for their superiority. No, it was
her method of making gloves, the cutting and
the sewing of them, which actually dis-
tinguished Grenoble. Her workers enjoyed a
privileged position in the industry; they
were celebrated far and near. Other locali-
ties did their best to entice them away;
especially did Germany, Piedmont and
Smtzerland offer inducements, and, whenever
possible, strangers would enter the Grenoble
shops to spy upon these artists and steal their
secrets. But they were never able to carry
this far enough to establish any great com-
petition in the international markets. The
Grenoble glove continued to be much sought
and exceedingly envied. Not able to procure
elsewhere gloves of equal beauty, shapeliness
and finish, merchants far and wide were
obliged to supply themselves from the city of
inimitable artists in the Dauphine; and
thus, without the slightest compulsion from
the Grenoble manufacturers, these traders
stimulated their business and spread their
fame.

The sewing women, M. Eoux tells us, con-
stituted a peculiar source of wealth to the
Grenoble industry. Their exquisite hand-
work defied all rivalry; there were no other
such accomplished sewers in all France, nor
in any other country. To-day they are still
celebrated ; but then they formed an exclusive

70 Gloves, Past and Present

factor of Grrenoble's prestige. Apprenticed
wMle young girls, they looked upon glove-
making as a career, an art in wMch they
desired to perfect themselves. The traditions
of glove-making forebears held them to the
ancient metier of the place; and even more
than the glovers and the male workers, they
met the encroachments of self-seeking for-
eigners with an intuitive distrust and i^roud
resistance.

Under such conditions as these, the glove
industr}^ in Grenoble was able to support
successfully the extreme vicissitudes of the
post-Eevolutionary era. Even while the wave
of prosperit}^ rolled, now high, now low, in
face of other manufacturers it maintained an
invincible superiority — ^none excelled the skill
of its handwork. Others were unable to
counterfeit this; it could not be imitated;
never elsewhere was it equalled.

But meanwhile, right at home, unsuspected
forces were slowly working, which were
destined to prove at the same time propitious
and full of danger for the Grenoble glovers.
The real revolution was approaching; the
great, internal change which was to be the
undoing of the old, the uprearing of a new
industrial system upon the razed foundations
of the old. The days of the craftsman and the
artist were numbered.

Every genius has his forerunner. About
the year 1819, Yallet d'Artois, a French
glove manufacturer, invented steel punches
in three sizes, each of which would cut, or
punch, out of leather two dozen gloves at
once. This invention was the first step toward
the introduction of modern machinerj^ into

From Artist to Artisan 71

tlie glove industry. It multiplied tlie effi-
ciency of the glove cutter, so far as speed was
concerned, twenty-four times.

In tlie same year, the genius who was
finally to revolutionize glove-making was
barely entering 3^oung manhood. Xavier
Jouvin has sometimes been called a Parisian.
He was born, however, in Grenoble, on the
eighth day of December, 1800, in the house
in the rue St. Laurent, now bearing the num-
ber 57. JouAdn was in Paris as a student in
1817, and he lived there again in 1825. But
he never felt at home in the least in the
French capital. He was a provincial by tra-
dition, birth and natural inclination; a
student and a dreamer whose spirit was
nourished by seclusion — b}^ journeying inward
and exploring its own solitudes rather than
by contact with men and affairs.

It seems significant that the first year of
the new centuiy should have ushered into
the world one of the leading mechanical
minds of that epoch. It is also strikingly
appropriate that Jouvin should have been a
native of Grenoble, since his name, above all
others, is identified with the modern industry
of glove-making. He was a visionary, whose
single need was the necessity of inventing
something all his days. He could not see any
kind of work going on near him but he must
think how he could make it easier by the
creation of some mechanical instrument.
Without ambition for fortune or for fame,
he was only too contented to proscribe his
life within apparently narrow limits. Eeturn-
ing from Paris in 1825, he was resolved to
enjoy obscurity, the provincial and rural

72 Gloves, Past and Present

environment in which his talent throve ; while
occupying his mind almost exclusively with
the study of mechanical processes necessary
to assure exact regularity in cutting gloves.

Already this young man had invented a
mowing machine, and a planisphere, by
means of which, automatically, one could
determine the position of the stars for every
night in the year. Now, in turning his atten-
tion to the problem of regularity of cut in
gloves, he was really broaching the great
factor which has given modern glove-making
its ascendency over the old method — ^namely,
the element of fit. At the outset he perceived
the exact terms of the problem which he
had set himself to solve. First, he must make
a general classification of the different sizes
and shapes of hands one meets ; secondly, he
must ascertain the precise extension of the
skin required for the measurements of the
hand he wished to fit.

By minutely studying hands in the Hos-
pital of Grenoble, Jouvin discovered and
wrote out in a rectangle thirty-two different
sizes of hands. He furthermore recognized
five types — ^very broad, broad, medium, slen-
der and very slender — each type being
divided into two classes. As there were
thirty-two sizes for each class, and five types
altogether, this made three hundred and
twenty different numbers of gloves, which
proved more than requisite to the demands of
the finest trade.

The dies which Jouvin invented and per-
fected for cutting out these three hundred
and twenty different gradations of gloves
consisted of the calibre, or glove pattern, and

From Artist to Aetisan 73

the puncli, or emporte-piece, and were made
of fine tempered steel blades fastened to a
back of cast iron. In making tlie heavier
grades of gloves, the die was struck with a
ponderous mallet, cutting only one thickness
at a time. By cutting only one piece in this
way, the artisan avoided any holes in the
skins which might have been made in killing
the wild animal or in dressing the leather.
The thumbs and gussets, or fourchettes — the
strips inserted to form the sides of the
fingers — ^were cut with separate dies from
pieces not large enough for the body of the
glove, thus utilizing nearly every scrap of
the material. As the leather was first placed
upon a block to receive the blows of the
mallet, this grade of goods came to be called
"block cut." In "table cut" gloves, however,
the leather was tranked out on a table and
shaped for the size desired. Then, by means
of a power press manj^ pairs were cut at once.
The nicest part of this process consists in
getting the leather in proper shape. Dif-
ferent sizes may be cut with the same pattern
by estimating accurately the elasticity of the
leather. Jouvin's calibre is the same by
which — under many different systems, of
course — -all gloves are cut to-day.

Jouvin also studied to determine what
degrees of pressure the skin will withstand
in different parts, in order that, in every
case, just the right piece of material should
be selected to produce the measurements
desired. Expert knowledge of skins is equally
important with proper use of utensils in pro-
ducing an accurately fitting glove.

74 Gloves, Past and Present

In his work Jouvin sought the satisfaction
of the scientist and the artist rather than any
financial benefit which might have accrued
to him from his remarkable system. When
he had completed his invention, he hardly
realized its pecuniary value; he took out a
patent for France, but not for any foreign
country. The immediate effect of his achieve-
ment was somewhat curious.

During Jouvin's own lifetime his inven-
tion not only failed to profit the glovers of his
native city, but actually worked them harm.
He himself groped his way for several years,
in an attempt to find capital and workers
which should prove the usefulness of his new
method. But the manufacturers scoffed at
him. They declared that Jouvin had "vulgar-
ized" glove cutting. The glove cutter was
dethroned; he was no longer an artist. A
machine did his work, and it was evident
that with this machine a good cutter could
turn out good gloves from poor skins, while
a poor cutter would turn out poor gloves
from good skins. The calibre certainly was a
mischievous device, and had turned the glove
art topsy-turvjM

Like any inventor, Jouvin himself was not
greatly affected by all this talk, nor by the
rebuffs he met whenever he tried to interest
business men; for he was absorbed in the
possibilities of further improvement upon
his invention. He had discovered the calibre
in 1834; in 1838 — ^without having drawn a
cent of profit thus far — ^he added the punch,
or emporte-piece, for automatically cutting
gloves to measure. In the following year,
however, his work suddenly received con-

From Artist to Artisan 75

spicuous public notice. It was rewarded a
bronze medal at tbe Industrial Exposition in
Paris. From tliat moment, Jouvin's future
as a glove manufacturer was assured, for men
with money rallied to his support. The first
thing the Grenoble glovers knew, Germany,
Switzerland and Italy had all seized upon
their fellow-citizen's admirable invention and
were turning it to tremendous commercial
account. Their outputs were increasing by
leaps and bounds. But, in France, one fac-
tory only — that of the inventor — worked,
while his compatriots stood still for the
benefit of foreign competitors to whom the
Jouvin system was free, while debarred from
French manufacturers under the terms of
the patent.

Of course, lawsuits against Jouvin arose,
as other glovers endeavored to have the broad,
general idea of stamping out gloves become
domaine piiblic, or public property. But the
industry had so far diminished in Grenoble
in 1840 that that city was not mentioned as
one of the principle producers of gloves.

Without doubt, the conservative manu-
facturers of that town learned their lesson.
For, in 1849, the year in which the Jouvin
patents expired, they hastened to shake off
this decade of depression which had seen
them bound hand and foot, while the glove-
makers of other lands rapidly eclipsed them
in importance ; and immediately they installed
in their shops the new system. With their
unrivalled skill and natural precedence now
reinforced by up-to-date mechanical methods,
the glovers of Grenoble effected a lightning
recovery. Moreover, their misfortunes had

76 Gloves, Past and Present

not been due to tlie lack of mechanical equip-
ment alone. Financial panic in America had
robbed them temporarily of one of their best
clients; and the price of skins had risen to
an exorbitant figure in France, even while
foreigners knew how to get them, without
paying a heavy duty, from Grenoble's own
mills at Annonay.

These conditions, however, were soon to
be righted. But another challenge to the old
regime loomed a few years ahead. In 1867,
at the Paris Exposition, some Grenoble
glovers paused in front of a fragile, little
machine, glanced at it with curiosity, and
went home without any idea that that jnodest
piece of mechanism was going to cap the
work of the calibre; and that shortly the
whole world would possess what, for two cen-
turies, had been the fortune and renown of
their native city — the ability to sew gloves
perfectly.

The era of labor-saving, quantity-multiply-
and cost-reducing machinery had indeed
arrived; and Grenoble, once she realized the
full significance of "vulgarizing" her ancient
trade, did not lag far behind. She faced and
conquered great difficulties in the nineteenth
century — ^notably, the large increase in the
"centres" of glove-making, as the trade grew
and improved abroad ; and also she succeeded
in finding a cheap, but good, kid to compete
with the German and Italian lambskins
which looked so well that they satisfied the
taste of the general public. These things she
accomplished with the help of modern
machinery; for which, in a peculiarly thank-
less and round-about way, the city owed a

From Artist to Artisan 77

great debt to one of her own sons. Tlie
European glove world paid its tribute to
Jouvin in 1851, wlien tlie Universal Exposi-
tion lield in Vienna voted Mm a Diploma of
Honor.

A later contribution to tbe teclinique
of the glove was the modern style of
fastener, introduced, about 1855, by M. Kay-
mond of Grenoble. His factory was a valu-
able addition to the leading industry of that
city. Koux gives credit to Kaymond for all
the various changes and improvements in
glove fasteners which we have to-day. The
old-fashioned lacing has been completely
replaced by the clasp, the neatness and
efficiency of which could hardly be bettered.

Thus, in the last century, we see virtually
every trace of the immemorial methods of
glove-making vanish before the swift incur-
sion of modern machinery. A few hand-sewn
gloves alone remain to remind us of the days
when the couiurieres, peasant women and
girls gathered in groups in cottages on the
outskirts of Grenoble, or in the ateliers of the
town, to sing as they sewed gloves for the
nobility and the gentry of a former time. But
the art has gained by the inestimable assets
of fit and individuality in gloves: by the
great numbers, also, in which gloves to-day
are supplied, that we all may delight in wear-
ing them.

In respect to Grenoble, moreover, it should
be observed that, through all these changes
and commercializing influences, she has sacri-
ficed not a whit of her invincible good taste.
Against foreign competition and the paraly-
sis which she suffered under the Jouvin

78 Gloves, Past and Present

patent, she had only the superiority of her
product to offer — the suppleness of her skins,
the elegance of their cut, the beauty of the
tints artificially applied, the finish and dura-
bility of her sewing. But these were enough
to keep her art alive. They still prevail —
and in even higher degree — in the gloves of
Grenoble makers to-day.

In the evolution from artist to artisan,
there is little room for regret. Already the
glove-workers of France have readjusted very
largely to changed conditions within the
industry; while the consumer and producer
alike may rejoice in the widespread accessi-
bility of the finest gloves in the world.

Chapter VIII.
ANNONAY AND ITS INDUSTKY

"In France, kid-culture is carried to perfection. ... To
this is due the value of the French skins, which command
higher prices than any in the market." — William 8. Beck.

NO history of gloves would be complete
wliicli failed to take into account the
old French town of Annonay and its cele-
brated industry. Annonaj^ has been men-
tioned several times already in the course of
these pages, when the subject of fine French
skins was touched upon, and especially in
connection with the diflficulties which arose
over the free exportation of these beautiful
leathers to manufacturers outside France.
At once the foundation of the glovers' pros-
perity, and the source to them of hardship
and bitter contention for want of proper
domestic protection of the trade in skins,
both Annonay and the town of Millau were
famous as old-established centres of the taw-
ing industry.

And right here, for the benefit of the lay-
man, it might not come amiss to define the
distinction between the well-known process
of tanning leather, and the less familiar
method of dressing skins, called tawing.
The latter is applied almost exclusively to
leathers in preparation for glove-making. It
differs from ordinary tanning in point of the
greater care and cleanliness of all the opera-
tions. Also, the dressed skin is submitted to
a brief fermentation, by piling one piece upon
another in a very warm place, so that, under
the influence of the heat and the pressure, the

80 Gloves, Past and Present

softness and flexibility of tlie leather may be
increased. The actual "tawing" itself con-
sists in treating the skins with a mixture of
flour, the yolks of eggs and alum. On the com-
pletion of this operation, they are stretched
by hand and dried as rapidly as possible.

The expert preparation of glove leather,
then, was the chief accomplishment of
Annonay and Millau. In regard to the latter,
it was that city which particularly was
embarrassed by the lambskin competition of
1872. Millau long had made a specialty of
tawing lambskin, but had not discovered the
secret of making the fine-looking gloves which
now, suddenly, were put upon the market by
Germany and other foreign countries. These
manufacturers abroad redoubled their activi-
ties, initiating new styles and even receiving
compensations from their governments. For
a time Millau folded its arms and submitted,
as M. Roux tells us, "in tranquil despair."

But before long Millau makers were hard
at work studying and experimenting to pro-
duce a cheaper grade of glove which, like
its rivals abroad should meet the growing
demand for a popular-price article with all
the fine appearance of genuine kid. The
glove trade, along with other industries of
the period, found that it must adapt itself to
the insistency on democratization of all
products. It must recognize the spirit of the
times; and in the cause of social equality, it
must furnish those who could not, or would
not, buy expensive kid gloves, with an excel-
lent substitute, as far as style and finish
were concerned.

. Annonay and Its Industry 81

Lambskins, at this period, became the
glove of democracy ; and Millau, quicklj^ over-
taking her foreign competitors, is to-day pro-
ducing fine lambskin gloves which are second
to none in Europe.

But, to return to Annonay, whose name is
identified with the ancient art of tawing as
far back, probably, as the fourteenth centurj^ !
The place has been called — and not inap-
propriately— the twin city of Grenoble. Its
industry, certainly, went hand in hand and
ranked equally in importance with that of
the celebrated glove town. Without Annonay
tanners and tawers Grenoble would have
lacked the fine skins indispensable to her
manufacture, and might never have held
first position as a producer of the most beauti-
ful gloves in the world.

Also, geographically^, there is a striking
resemblance between the two cities, which
likewise has an important bearing upon their
affiliations in commerce. Annonay, in the
department of the Ardeche, in south-eastern
France, is irregularly and picturesquely built
on several small hills, overlooking the deep
gorges of the Deome and the Cance. Thus,
it stands near the confluence of two large,
swift rivers, almost exactly as Grenoble does ;
and the waters of these rivers — torrential
streams, subject to sudden floods — supply
power to the factories of the town. By means
of a dam across the Ternay, a tributary of
the Deome, to the northwest of the city, a
reservoir is provided, in which an additional
supply of water, for both industrial and
domestic purposes, is stored. Moreover, the
river Ardeche flows in close proximity — like

82 Gloves, Past and Present

the Isere unexcelled for its purity. By virtue
of the especial qualities of its waters, Anno-
nay has become what it is — the chief home of
French dressers of glace kid skins.

The climate, like that environing Grenoble,
is particularly favorable to the raising of
goats and sheep. The Oevannes mountains
almost cover the department of the Ardeche,
and their spurs provide rich grazing country.
The peasants are shepherds worthy of that
ancient calling. The young kids are as care-
fully nurtured and watched over as are the
children in the family, for absolutely nothing
must be allowed to cause any defects in their
skins. They must be killed at a tender age,
for as soon as the kid begins to eat herbage,
his pelt is injured for the finer qualities of
gloves. Indeed, the perfect glove animal is
milk-fed — and necessarily short-lived.

However, when the kids are allowed to
grow up and become goats, their skins are
still useful for the heavier, stronger grades
of gloves. Such are termed chevrettes, that
being the French name for goats. The same
care is exercised that these animals shall not
meet with any injury to their hides, and good
chevrette leather is invaluable for pique and
prickseam gloves, which rank very high
indeed.

Formerly, skins of chamoix, and both wild
and domestic animals, were collected all over
the country by a class of people correspond-
ing to what were known in England as
"higglers." Ultimately, all these trophies
found their way into the hands of the famous
dressers of Annonay. In these days, the
leading glove manufacturers of Grenoble

Annonay and Its Industry 83

buy their skins "in the raw" at the Spring
fairs, which are held at various centres
throughout France. When they have as-
sembled their lots, they then ship them to
the dressing factory in Annonay.

"The dressing of leather," says Hull, in his
History of the Glove Trade, published in Eng-
land in 1834, "formed one of the earliest occu-
pations of mankind in all countries; and it
is a significant fact that Laplanders, Africans
and Canadian Indians dress skins in the
highest perfection, altho' their means and
processes necessarily are of the rudest kind.
The Laplanders also make very tolerable
gloves."

With all due respect to the Laplanders,
and other aborigines, we venture to place
the tawers of Annonay above even those
primitive artists to whom Mr. Hull gave first
credit. Mr. Hull wrote his little book to
prove that the free trade policy would be the
ruination of England's home manufactures —
nor was he greatly mistaken, as far as the
glove business of his day was concerned.
Naturally, this vehement protectionist had
little good to say of French methods — ^which
accounts, perhaps, for his going back to the
uncivilized peoples to pay his debt for the
art of leather-dressing ; in England, certainly,
at that period, skill in preparing glove skins
was sadly lacking.

The finest qualities of French kid skins,
suitable for glace hand-wear, come from the
valleys of the Loire, the Rhone, the Poiton
and Auvergne. Inferior to these are those
which emanate from the extreme south of

84 Gloves, Past and Present

France, from Provence and the Pyrenees ; as
one nears Spain, tlie skins coarsen.

At Annonay, the skin-dressing industry —
like that of glove-making at Grenoble — has
been established for so many centuries, that
long family lines have devoted themselves
for successive generations to that single call-
ing. Fathers, sons and grandchildren have
passed their lives and spent their efforts in
furthering and perfecting the art of prepar-
ing glove skins which should be without a
rival. The "French National" skins are the
result. Doubtless they are the finest skins
in the world.

To appreciate fully the perfection of this
art, and its importance to the science of
glove-making, a visit to the largest skin-
dressing establishment in Annonay to-day
would appear almost indispensable. In
imagination, accordingly^, let us enter the
factory in question, owned and operated by
Messrs. Briancon & Company. We find it a
large, airy, well-lighted, four-storied struc-
ture, recently built for the express purpose
for which it is now used.

When the skins "in the hair" arrive at this
factory they are at once hoisted to the top
fioor, where they are unpacked and piled up
in stacks. The dresser holds the skins on
account of the manufacturer of gloves who
has bought them at the fairs. To each manu-
facturer is allotted suf^cient floor space in
the fourth story of the dressing factory to
receive his supply of skins. Each stack is
ticketed with the name of the owner or
owners — that is, the manufacturer — and its
place of origin.

Annonay and Its Industry 85

Each layer of skins, as placed on tlie stack,
is well sprinkled with naphtha to disinfect
and keep it wholesome. If the hides are to
remain long in the stacks before going into
the dressing, they must be unstacked from
time to time, shaken out, aired, and restacked,
to prevent them from overheating. When the
dresser receives from the manufacturer in-
structions to put one of his lots into the
dressing, the first thing that has to be done
is carefully to inspect each skin in the pile;
it is then classified as "hard," "extra strong,"
or "medium"; as "fine" or "superfine."

After all the skins in the stack have been
looked over, and sorted in this manner, they
are carried to the ground floor of the factory
and placed in tanks of clear, cold water, in
which they must remain for forty-eight hours.
At the end of that time, they are thoroughly
washed in running cold water, and are again
put into the tanks, where they are kept for
another forty-eight hours.

The next step is one of the most particular
in the entire process. The skins are removed
from the clear water into tanks of concrete,
simk in the floor of the factory, which are
filled with a mixture of water and dead sifted
lime. Every forty-eight hours they are taken
out and well swilled with a similar mixture ;
then immediately replaced in the tanks. The
length of time skins should be kept in this
lime bath depends upon their character and
origin. The effect of the lime on the skin is
to render it very easy to scrape off the hair.
According to the regions from which they
come, skins remain in the bath for from ten
to twenty-five days. This lime treatment is

86 Gloves, Past and Present

the most crucial point in the dressing of kid
skins, for it is only after long years of experi-
ence that a master dresser knows exactly how
long it takes to render — let us say, for
instance — an Auvergne skin "unhairable." If
the skins are left even twenty-four hours too
long in the lime mixture, they are so damaged
as to be useless for manufacturing into high
grade gloves.

When it is judged that the skins have
remained long enough in the lime bath, they
are taken out and then energetically washed
in clear, running water ; after which they are
passed along to another set of men who place
them, one by one, flat, over a smooth, rounded
block of wood, and with a blunt, two-handled,
almost scythe-shaped knife, proceed to scrape
the hair and fat off the surface of the skins.
The "unhairing" completed, the skins, still
wet and mussy, are passed on to women
workers who trim the edges — to which ad-
heres superfluous fat — with large hand
shears.

The next process is to rid the skins of the
lime with which tliej have been charged.
Therefore, scraped and trimmed, they are sub-
merged in a large, wooden vat, containing hot
water mixed with an entirelj^ new product,
invented by Monsieur Louis Peyrache. This
product is called "peroly" and is an enemy to
lime. When the skins are lifted out of this
solution they are found to be quite devoid of
all traces of the latter.

Following the "peroly bath," the skins are
placed in another large tub full of hot water,
above which passes a crank connected with an
electric motor, from which crank four shafts

Annonay and Its Industry 87

terminating in wooden "stampers" hang down
into the tub. Tlie tub also revolves on a
spindle connected with, the motor. The object
of this bath is to free the skins of every ves-
tige of the peroly; and the effect of the hot
water is to open the pores in the skins and
render them more easily deprived of the ani-
mal matter they contain.

The skins have now been well washed and
thoroughly cleaned. They appear almost
transparent. But the series of "baths" is not
over. However, before another is attempted,
the skins are laid again across the wooden
blocks and as much as possible of the fatty
substance which still adheres to them is
scraped off with the blunt knives already
described. In this instance, as previously,
the skins are scraped on the sides from which
the hair was removed in the first place, known
as the "fleur" side of the sldn. Then comes
the bran bath. In a mixture of luke warm
water and bran they are gently stirred
around by means of long, wooden props
fitted with ferules of india-rubber. Once
more the skins are lifted out and laid on the
blocks ; and this time the scraping is done on
the "flesh" or inside. Another bran bath
follows, and now the skins require careful
watching. When the master dresser judges
that they have stayed long enough in this
second bran solution, they are again, one by
one, laid over the blocks, when all the remains
of the bran are scraped off.

Now the skins are put into a large, closed
receptacle, containing a mixture of the yel-
lows of eggs, meal and alum. This mixture
"feeds" the skins; it is a kind of "wrinkled

88 Gloves, Past and Present

paste" in the beautifying process. It fills up
the pores which have been impoverished
through the loss of their natural fat and oil.
The next day, the skins are taken out of this
bath, and are strung up in a large room
through which flows a current of dry, heated
air. In stringing up the skins here, care
always is taken to fold them with the "fleur"
surface inside. After they have become
thoroughly dried, they are tied up into
packets of six dozen each, and left in a dry,
normal atmosphere for fifteen days, or even
a month. By this time the skins are quite
hard and brittle.

To take out the stiffness, the skins now
are dipped into clear, cold water for a few
minutes. They are left in the air until the
following day, when they are passed through
a set of rollers which help to make them
supple; after which they are sent imme-
diately to the "palisson." This process rein-
vigorates the dressed skins, rendering them
plastic and easily stretched. By the old-
fashioned method, it is performed by hand.
The "palisson" consists, as formerly, of a
large, rounded, blunted steel blade, pointing
upwards, and fastened into a wooden block,
over which the skin is dravm backwards and
forwards, with its flesh side on the blade.
After this operation, the skin is rubbed over
another blade, similarly shaped, but slightly
sharpened. By means of this, the remainder
of the flesh is cut away from the surface of
the skin, thus giving it the softness and white-
ness which, by this time, it will have acquired.

In these days, the "palisson" process is
also performed by girls at revolving wheels

Annonay and Its Industry 89

run by a motor, and tlie results obtained com-
pare very well indeed with the old-fashioned
method of palisson by hand.

The skins are now completely dressed.
Lastly, they are sent to the classing room to
be examined by experts and sorted according
to their qualities. They are then forwarded
to the manufacturers at Grenoble.

In the United States kid gloves manu-
factured out of skins from all over Europe,
and even from northern Africa and China, are
to be found on the counters of the glove shops.
But the best kidskins come from France, and
are invariably dressed in Annonay and manu-
factured into gloves at Grenoble. The
American, then, who buys gloves of French
origin, Annonay dressed, and made in Gre-
noble, may flatter himself that he is enjoying
perfection itself in hand-wear.

Chapter IX.
THE GLOVES WE BUY

"There's nothing like leather. Leather is a product of
Nature. Take a piece of leather and observe the way the
fibres are knit together. It is Nature's work. It is so won-
derful that man cannot hope to reproduce it. He cannot
even re-create it. Boil a piece of hide or skin. It will turn to
gelatine. No power known to man can turn that gelatine back
into leather. Shred it. No machine can reweave the fibres
into their former wonderful fabric. Take all the chemicals
which go to make up a piece of leather, and mix them in all
the ways that can be imagined, and man cannot make a single
inch of leather. Synthetic leather seems farther away than,
the synthetic diamond."

THE person wlio enters a glove shop of
reputation — or the glove department of
any high class store — to buy gloves, probably
has a very limited notion of the variety of
fabrics and workmanship represented by the
goods before him. To this single line of mer-
chandise nearly every country in the world
contributes to-day; not merely in the his-
torical sense, in which we have watched the
glove evolve through the centuries, but also
in point of materials and processes actually
used. The glove counter, little as we may
appreciate it, brings together the riches and
skill of the Orient, of Africa, of Europe, and
of the Western World. A glance at some of
the names, familiar to us all, as cape and
mocha, immediately suggests their origin in
far distant countries.

And yet, perhaps for economy of expres-
sion— if not from positive ignorance — the
general public divides all leather dress gloves
into just two classes, "dressed kid" and "un-
dressed kid." Everything with the grain
surface, or smooth finish, is designated by

The Gloves We Buy 91

the former term; tlie latter is popularly
applied to gloves with the grain surface
removed, or finished on the flesh side of the
skin. To the initiated, however, gloves are
distinguished primarily by the different kinds
of leather of which they are made; and, still
further, by the great variety of qualities
which each kind of leather is capable of
exhibiting.

In the glove trade men talk of "cape,"
"suede," "doeskin," "lambskin," "kid"— nor
is the meaning of each of these nearly so
obvious, nor so simple, as would casuallj^
appear. If, in every case, the name were
properly applied to skins which came from a
distinct type of animal, grown in one partic-
ular district, whose hide was tanned into
leather by its own peculiar process, then the
quality and character of each kind of leather
would be practically uniform. But such is far
from being the fact. When first used, no
doubt, each of these terms meant a certain,
well-defined thing. Now, however, in the
evolution of processes of production, the
meaning has been enlarged; and virtually
any of these designations covers a much
wider scope, even departing radically, in
many instances, from its original application.

Let us take, for example, the "cape" glove.
In the first place this name was used to dis-
tinguish a glove made of skins from the Cape
district of South Africa. These skins were
large spread, heavy, rather tight grained, and
are still used in the production of genuine
cape gloves. But the soft, pliable, widely-
worn glove, in various weights, now commer-
cially known as cape, is manufactured from

92 Gloves, Past and Present

sheep and lamb skins grown in many lands,
and tanned and dressed by tlie method called
"napa dipped." What was once the name
for a glove made from one type of skins is
now the designation for hand-wear made
from leather of a particular tannage, for
which skins of many types, grown in many
lands, are used.

Probably the best types of these skins
come from Eussia to-day — the district fur-
nishing the most desirable qualities being the
province of Kasan and the nearby territory
of the Volga Eiver. Others of varying degrees
of merit emanate from Spain, as well as from
the European Orient — Turkey, Eoumania,
Bulgaria, Montenegro and Servia; and, to a
small extent, from some other vicinities. All
these are called Oriental skins. Those with
the finest grades of wool, oddly enough, are
Inferior, usually, to those which have hairy,
wiry wool — as far as their desirability for
glove leather is concerned. Evidently, then,
the place of origin, the character of the pelt,
and the method of its tannage, all have
important bearing on the quality of the
cape glove.

But if the cape is made from lamb skin,
what, then, is the distinguishing feature
between the lamb glove and the cape glove?
How are we to tell them apart? Up to that
stage in tannage referred to as "in the
white," these two leathers are practically the
the same — except that the skins which are
to go into the capes are heavier and larger.
It is in the finishing and coloring processes
that the distinction occurs. The dressing
and coloring — which, in fact, is a part of the

The Gloves We Buy 93

tannage of the capes and completes this
process — is done by the "drum" or "dipped"
method. This colors the skin all the way
through; whereas, leather for the so-called
lamb glove has the color brushed on the
grain surface only, leaving the flesh side of
the leather, which is to be the inside of the
glove, in the white.

Thus, the visible marks of difference
between the cape glove and the lamb glove,
so-named, are in the weight of the stock, and
in the fact that the cape, when colored, is
dyed through the skin, instead of merely on
the grain surface.

German tanners have been the largest
converters of lamb and sheep skins into cape
leather by the napa tannage, which is an
alum process. And it is the German stock
which, until recently, was chiefly used in the
American-made cape gloves. In the year
1913, however, several American tanners
devised a chrome cape tannage, which
appears to be even superior to the napa
process, and possesses the added merit that
it may be cleansed in water free of alkali of
any temperature up to 212° Fahrenheit. It is
this leather — really an American discovery —
which goes into the gloves popularly known
as washable capes. Since the outbreak of
the European War, in 1914, chrome tanning
has been further improved in this country;
and as real Cape of Good Hope leather is
used, the United States is producing to-day
the best cape gloves ever known, and the
German tanned napa cape is fast being
discarded.

While mocha is made from skins grown in

94 Gloves, Past and Present

far distant lands, moclia gloves are distinctly
of American origin. With tlie march, of civili-
zation westward in the United States, and the
disappearance of the antelope from the
western plains of North America some thirty-
five years ago, a skin was sought by glove
manufacturers in this country to take the
place of the antelope, which was used in mak-
ing a glove in those days known as doeskin.
After patient search, and much experiment-
ing with various species of skins and different
tanning processes, a tannage was perfected
for the skin of the Arabian hair sheep which
produced the strong, but soft, velvety finished
mocha.

The skin derives its name, no doubt, from
Mocha, a seaport town of Arabia on the Red
Sea, whence, it is said, these skins were first
brought. The Mocha hair sheep is a distinct
type, and is not a species resulting from cross
breeding between the Mocha goat and a kind
of wool sheep, as often has been stated.
While the Mocha goat and the Mocha sheep
herd together, they do not interbreed. The
mocha market of the world is Aden, at the
southern end of Arabia. The buyers here
keep native collectors at the chief points to
which skins are conveyed by caravans. These
points are Moka, Berber a. Bulbar, Djibouti
and Zeylah in Africa, and Hodeidah in
Arabia. The skins are sorted and graded
according to size, weight and condition; then
they are baled, about three hundred in a lot.
First, however, they are sun-dried, and are
treated with naphthaline to protect them
from damage by worms.

The Gloves We Buy 95

In tlie vernacular of the trade, these skins
are referred to as wMte-lieads, black-heads
and red-heads. They are thus classified in
reference to the color of the hair on the heads
of the animals, the bodies being black and
white, red and white, or all white. However,
as the head colors denote a type of skin with
more or less well defined characteristics,
these designations are more scientific than
would appear. For glove leather the black-
heads rank first in quality, the white-heads
second, and the red-heads third. The black-
head type, which comes principally from the
African districts mentioned, is more dis-
tinctly a hair skin than the other two types,
and has a tighter, firmer texture. With the
white-heads, which are chiefly Arabian skins,
the hair is of a more woolly character and
the fibre of the skin is looser. This last is
also true of the red-heads, in which these ele-
ments are even more pronounced. Certain
other kinds of sheep skins — ^notably those
found in the district between Cairo and
Khartum, known as "Sudans" — have been
adapted for the manufacture of mocha leather.
These yield a much larger spread, coarser
fibre skin than the mocha hair sheep; but
when tanned by the mocha process, sudans
sufficiently resemble the mocha to be sold for
that article — except to the expert.

No other glove leather passes through so
many different processes in tanning and
dressing as does the mocha. This is chiefly
due to the fact that the skins, at their source,
are handled by the natives in a crude sort of
way, and under the crusted, sun-dried surface
there are often many defects which do not

96 Gloves, Past and Present

show until tlie skin is subjected to tlie tan-
ning process. Mocha skins invariably are
scratched, scarred and imperfect on the grain
surface ; for this reason the grain is removed.
At the same time, as much of the grain
strength as possible must be preserved while
eliminating the imperfections.

This method, which is called "friezing,"
distinguishes the mocha from the suede glove.
Though in appearance, when finished, they
are very similar, mocha and suede actually
are extremel}^ different in character. In the
friezed mocha, the outer or wearing surface
of the glove, which receives the finish, is on
the grain and not on the flesh side of the
leather. Friezing merely removes the grain
to take the finish, thus leaving much of the
strength of the outer skin — while in suede or
other "undressed" finishes, this strength is
entirely lacking.

The name suede is derived purely from
the sueding process, and not from the kind
of leather used. Skins with perfect grain
usually are finished on the grain surface side
and are called glace. But many with imper-i
feet grain are finished on the fiesh side of the
skin, by the sueding process. Suede, then, is
exactly the reverse of mocha, in that what
was the inside of the skin becomes the out-
side of the glove. Suede leather, obviously, is
inferior in strength, if not in appearance, to
the same types of skins dressed on the grain
side. It has by no means the durability of
mocha — though a high-grade suede strikingly
resembles mocha.

Although "chamois" is not chamois, it is
by no means a sham. And that the "doeskin"

The Gloves We Buy 97

is most likely a eweskin is notMng to its
discredit. The chamois of commerce is not
the skin of the Switzerland animal known by
that name, nor is the doeskin of to-day the
skin of the one-time antelope. Both are
sheep skins, or parts of sheep skins, tanned
and dressed as chamois and doeskins. Col-
lectors and dealers in sheep skins at their
source, in some districts find it necessary, or
advantageous, to split the skins edgewise,
making two thinner skins. The upper part,
with the grain surface, is termed a "skiver,"
and the lower section a "flesher." It is from
these flesher sheepskins that the leathers
commercially known as chamois and doeskin
are produced.

The tanning processes of chamois are
many, the most common being the oil tan-
nage, alum and chrome. The finest selections
of fleshers, split from sheepskins of the
Scotch mountains, and from France, Spain
and Turkey, are oil tanned and are used for
the production of the washable chamois glove.
Another, and comparatively recent, tannage
of fleshers, is the formaldehyde process which
supplies the leather commercially known as
doeskin. Properly tanned for that purpose,
these leathers will wash perfectly under the
prescribed rules for washing. Trade in these
gloves, however, has suffered from intense
competition which has forced a cheap, quicker
tannage, and one which will preserve the
largest possible spread to the skin. And some-
times the washing quality has been sacrificed
to secure a finer "face" to the leather. Tan-
nages even are used which render the leather
not washable but actually impervious to

98 GrLOVES, Past and Present

water — simply for the sake of tlie pleasing
appearance of the skin when new. These
things, coupled with the wearer's careless
disregard of proper methods of washing, have
cast some measure of discredit upon what
are really meritorious gloves.

But, as regards the really reputable
chamois glove of to-day! In the first place,
how absurd to the initiated is the question,
so often asked by the customer, "Is this
genuine chamois?" Think of it! An animal
grown in the Swiss Alps, and, like the Ameri-
can buffalo, now almost extinct, is supposed
by many people to produce chamois gloves
for the whole, civilized world! As we have
seen, "genuine chamois" is sheep or lamb
skin, tanned by a simple process similar to
that used on the real chamois, many, many
years ago. Sheep skins give the best results ;
but lamb skins are used to a limited extent.
The latter make finer gloves, but not so
durable, as these skins scarcely can stand
the hard usage this leather requires in
preparation.

The entire tanning process of chamois
leather calls for absolutely nothing but fish
oil. No dye, no acid, no alkali goes into this
leather, and thus its washing qualities are
unquestioned. After the skins have remained
in the vats in this oil a sufficient length of
time — a month or more, as is determined by
experts — they are wrung out and hung up
in drying rooms, without ventilation, and a
few fagots of wood kept burning. When
thoroughly dry they have what is known as
the "natural" or yellow color, and no two
tannings come out alike in shade. When a

The Gloves We Buy 99

cream color, or wMte, is desired, another
process follows. An expert goes through the
skins, selecting those that have body and
strength enough to stand the severe washing
they are to get. These skins are put into
vats or tubs of clear water and washed
"French fashion" — which means, beaten with
a club — and are then wrung out again and
laid on the grass in the sun to bleach.

If cream color is wanted, a day or two on
the grass in the sun will suffice. But if white
is desired — and it mostly is preferred— a
week or ten days is required for this bleach-
ing, depending, of course, on the weather.
Good, sunshiny weather means good, white
chamois leather; while a long spell of dull,
cloudy weather means a poor shade of white,
with plenty of white chalk rubbed into the
skins to make them appear whiter. Irre-
spective of the sun, they will all get some
chalk, however. It is interesting to note that
these skins are supposed to imbibe a great
deal of nourishment from the grass as they
lie exposed to the sunlight. White chamois
gloves, which have been put away for some
time in boxes, will begin to turn back to a
dull yellow; but if placed in the light, in a
store or in a window, they will turn white
again.

After the yellowing or bleaching process,
the chamois skins — natural, cream or white —
have only to go to the doler to be ready for
the cutter's knife. At the best, this glove is
rather rough looking, but it is simple and
artistic, and especially in keeping with the
travelling or sport costume. Also, at the
end of the journey, or after the out-of-door

100 GrLOVES, Past and Present

game, such a glove may be washed as easily
and successfully as a pocket-handkercMef.
So, its popularity is enduring.

Already we are somewhat familiar with
kid gloves, from our detailed study of the
great industry of Grenoble, including the
dressers' works at Annonay. Nearly all the
kid skins used in glove-making are procured
in Europe, and the production really is
limited to a very few countries. As we have
seen, France leads. Next comes Italy, then
Germany, Austria, and — ^up to the disaster
of August, 1914 — Belgium. Several months
are consumed, and a dozen or more processes
are necessary, before kid skins are in the
market as glove leather. These operations
have been fully described in the chapter
immediately preceding. When the finished
skins appear "in the white" they are ready
for the dyer.

An expert goes through the skins and
assorts them for the different colors for
which they are best adapted. For instance,
some skins will make good tan shades, but
would not make greys — and so on, through
the entire list of colors. As all skins take the
black dje well, it follows that the last sort-
ings go into black. Black and white are the
easiest of all to dye; and perfect skins, dyed
white, show to the best advantage of any —
while grej is a color which is a l)ete noir to
all manufacturers and dyers. Hundreds of
dollars have been literally thrown away in
an attempt to produce some particular shade.
Suede leather yields more readily and accu-
rately to the dyer's art than glace, and
furnishes a greater variety of shades. For

The Gloves We Buy 101

tMs reason, and because of their fine, velvety
surface, they are considered by many the
most beautiful of all gloves; and by the
fastidious are preferred for opera and even-
ing wear.

Kid skins produced in other countries
than France all have about the same charac-
teristics. But French Nationals remain
invariably the best. It may be added that
kids raised in low, flat countries, like Bel-
gium, while presenting a fine appearance,
never have the strength of the highland
skins.

Lambskins, like kid, are nearly all found
in Europe, but they cover a much wider
range of territory. Like kid skins, they are
carefully nurtured and guarded against im-
perfections. They are grown in Italy, Sicily,
Sardinia, Corsica, Spain, France, Germany,
Austria, Eussia and the Balkan States, the
product of the latter being known — like the
sheepskins for "cape" purposes — as "Oriental
leather." For fine lambskin gloves the best
leather of all comes from northern Italy, and
is termed, commercially, "Tuscany skins";
these rival kid skins for fine grain and
durability. Next in value comes the fine
French lamb known as "Eigord." Then fol-
low the Spanish skins. The Eussian (Kasan)
and Oriental skins are of equal value with
some of the above named, many of them run-
ning very fine in grain and producing remark-
ably durable gloves. As they tend to be
heavier in weight, however, the larger part
of this class of lambskins finds its way into
men's gloves. It is said that fully 80% of
Oriental leather goes to German and English

102 Gloves, Past and Present

tanneries, wMcli prepare more especially
materials for tlie heavier grades of gloves.

In the tanning or dressing of lambskins,
the processes are practically the same as in
the prepara,tion of kid and goat skins for the
glove manufacturer. Lambskins also are
subjected to the same examination by experts
to determine the colors they will take best.
In fact, the only real difference between fine
kid and fine lamb gloves is that the former is
of a more delicate, yet firmer, grain, and pro-
duces a better wearing article with more
intrinsic value.

Nearly all colors, applied in dyeing both
kid and lamb gloves, are put on with a brush.
The skins are laid on marble slabs, and the
color brushed on, a sufficient number of coats
being given to produce the desired shade and
to fix it thoroughly and evenly. This explains
wh}^ colored gloves remain white on the
inside, as the dyes do not strike through,
Some of the light, or extremely delicate tints,
however — as pink, cream, azure, lilac — will
not take the color with brushing. In such
cases, the skin must be immersed in the dye,
or "dipped"; and then the color shows, of
course, on both exterior and interior.

After the dj^er's work is done, and the
skins would appear to a novice ready for the
cutter, still another process has to be gone
through, requiring an entirely different kind
of skilled labor. This is the process of
"doling" — ^mentioned a few paragraphs back,
in connection with chamois — and it consists
in reducing each skin to a uniform thickness
throughout, as nearly as possible. The doler
lays the skin on a marble slab and with a

The Gloves We Buy 103

broad, flat knife, sliarp as a razor, goes over
tlie inner surface, planing or doling off the
uneven places. A thoroughly good cutter
always doles his own skins. Some manu-
facturers, however, employ dolers for this
purpose exclusively.

Such are the leading leathers used in the
making of fine gloves. Developments in tan-
ning have also brought into use the skins of
many animals ordinarily considered of no
value to the glove trade. While deer, sheep,
kid and calf skins in former daj^s were used
exclusively, in our times the skins of dogs,
foxes, bears, the cow, the colt, the kangaroo
— and almost every hair animal — are em-
ployed to some extent. Most of these, how-
ever, could never pass for fine products, even
among the uninitiated-— with the possible
exception of colt; and they are used only by
inferiors in the trade, with whom the pres-
ent discussion of glove-making has nothing
to do. These coarse leathers are honest
enough, however, in the hands of Esquimaux,
backwoodsmen, and people who are obliged
to provide out of the materials within reach
warm coverings for the hands. But, in such
cases, the fur is usually left on the hide,
deceiving no one.

And now we come to the actual turning
of the leather into gloves. Since Xavier
Jouvin's invention, the glove cutter has not
actually cut out gloves. The old method of
tracing the pattern and following it with
the scissors has completely vanished. But
the glove cutter, still so-called, exercises a
great deal of care and skill in cutting oblong-
shaped pieces of leather which will make

104 Gloves, Past and Present

exactly tlie size lie stamps on them wlien,
later, tlie gloves are cut out by means of steel
dies. In doing tMs, the cutter uses paste-
hoard patterns, to he sure; hut these are
simply guides to enahle him to put exactly the
right amount of leather into each piece that
he cuts, in order to produce the size desired.
To the cutter each skin he takes up becomes
a new problem. As no tv^o faces are alike, so
also no two skins are alike — not even those
of the same class.

The cutter first stretches the skin care-
fully to ascertain or measure its elasticity.
Then he applies his pattern to see how he
can get the best results quantitatively. In
other words, a cutter must exercise the
utmost ingenuity to get as many gloves as
possible out of the skins he is working on,
and not let any of the leather go to waste.
In many glove factories, the foreman "taxes"
the skins as they are given out to the cutters ;
that is, he fixes the number of pairs of gloves
the cutter must turn out for a certain quan-
tity of skins. After the cutter has stretched,
pulled, measured, and finally cut out his
oblong piece of leather, he marks the size on
it and lays it aside for the calibres, which
will be shown in operation later on.

The skilled cutter's work is done, and the
pieces of leather he has cut are called tranks.
The cutter must know, of course, whether the
tranks he is producing are for over-seam,
pique or prick-seam gloves, as each requires
a different pattern. The fragments of leather
left from the skins after the tranks are cut
are used as far as possible for cutting hems,
bindings, fourchettes and "hearts," which

The Gloves We Buy 105

latter is the teclinical name for the little
"stay" at the bottom of the wrist opening.
And certainly there is very little of the skin
which is not utilized after all these items are
subtracted. One would hardly realize what a
jig-saw puzzle, and in how many intricately
fitting parts, a glove actually is, until he
paused to examine one and to count the dif-
ferent sections which must be shaped and
cut out to go into its making.

Next, the calibres demand out attention.
These are the knives which really cut the
tranks into the shape of gloves and might,
perhajDS, be called dies. They run, of course,
in sizes ; and the process might be likened to
the old-fashioned way of cutting cakes out
of dough with a tin cover, except that in
stamping out gloves the position is reversed.
The calibre is locked into a heavy machine
with the sharp steel knife-edges up, and the
tranks laid on top. A lever is pulled, a heavy
weight descends, and the cut gloves are then
ready to sew.

Calibres are by no means uniform. That
is to say, all manufacturers do not use the
same kind; and among the leading, large
manufacturers, each has his own cut, or set
of calibres, differing from all others in some
one or more points. For example, one manu-
facturer will have the fingers of his gloves
made longer or shorter than the average;
another will have all the fingers gussetted,
while another will have no gussets, not even
at the gore of the thumb. Still another has
a cut with a specially short little finger —
and so on. This results in a very wide
variety of "cuts" in gloves, and each manu-

106 Gloves, Past and Present

facturer of standard make is satisfied, and
thinks Ms own is the best. It is the dis-
criminating woman who finds out what cut
or make fits her particular hand, and then
sticks to that manufacturer's gloves.

Gloves are sewed in three different waj^s.
First, the two edges are brought together
and sewed over and over. This is called over-
seam, and sometimes round-seam, and is the
method used on all fine, dressy gloves. A
second way laps the edges one over the other
and sews through and through. This is lap-
seam, or pique, and is popular on gloves for
street wear. Third, and last, the seams are
brought together, the same as in overseam
sewing, but are sewed through and through.
This method is called prick-seam, and some-
times sadlers sewn, and is used only on heavy
leathers.

The first machine invented for glove sew-
ing was put on the market about forty-five
years ago and did overseam work only. It
was fought by many of the best manufac-
turers who continued to make the boast of
their hand-sewn gloves. Time has overcome
this feeling, and the invention of pique and
prick-seam sewing machines has done away
with all handsewing — ^with the exception of
a few sadlers sewn, made in England, and
their quantity so small as to be negligible.
Even the embroidery on the backs of gloves
to-day is done almost entirely by machine.
There are one or two styles still shown that
are sewn by hand, called tambour. Tambour
work is very handsome and cannot be done
except by hand — yet; but the limit of ma-
chines has bv no means been reached.

Chapter X.
GLOVES OF THE HOUK

AN interesting modern development in
^ glove making, and one which un-
doubtedly has come to stay, is the vogue of
the silk glove whose popularity has grown to
surprising proportions. Oddly enough, the
first gloves to be introduced into Europe for
women in the thirteenth century were made
of linen, and were of very simple design.
These may be regarded as the ancestor of the
chamoisette and cotton doeskins of our day;
while the knitted silk, or "purled" hand cover-
ings, worn by the early clergy, suggested
perhaps the gloves of silk fabric so widely in
favor for the last half century. Quaint lace
"mitts" and gloves of spider-webby texture
imparted to the costumes of our grand-
mothers a charming femininity. But the
practical silk glove as a substitution for kid
is a comparatively recent achievement of
manufacturers who are trying their best to
meet the constantly multiplying new demands
of modern men and women.

The most hasty comparison of the earliest
fabric gloves with those produced in our own
times cannot fail to impress one with the
tremendous strides the glove art has taken
since it became a really modern industry.
The silk and linen gloves of mediaeval days
were loose and almost shapeless; they
possessed neither fit nor individuality.
Roughh^ measured to clothe the hands of a
king, they might have been worn almost
equally well by the lowliest of his subjects.

108 Gloves, Past and Present

They were bulky and awkward, concealing,
rather than delineating, the character of the
hands beneath.

Gloves of leather and kid were first to
acquire those traits of individuality which
were made possible by Xavier Jouvin's inven-
tion of an exact system of measurements,
adapted to virtually every size and type of
human hand. The perfection of fabric gloves,
however, lagged behind. Even silk gloves
were indifferently made, and could be had in
only a very limited range of styles and sizes.
As for cotton gloves, these were conspicuous
for their ugliness and cheapness, up to within
a very few years ago. And yet, to-day, we
have velvety chamoisette and imitation doe-
skins which, upon the hand of the wearer, are
so deceptive that they readily are mistaken
for the soft-finished leathers from which they
have been named. These fabric gloves, made
of white, yellow and many other colored
textiles, woven especially for this purpose,
are supple, snug fitting, and possess a style
of their own. They retain their shape even
with repeated washing, and they wear amaz-
ingly w^ell. It cannot be disputed that they
fill a long felt need in both the masculine
and the feminine wardrobes.

Particularly in warm weather the fabric
glove, or the silk glove, almost puts out of
business the leather glove, which seems heavy,
overheating, unsanitary, and entirely out of
keeping both with the light costume and the
altered mood of the wearer. As summer
approaches, we naturally long to have every-
thing about our persons fresh, easily re-
newable, dainty, light and cool to the touch.

Gloves of the Hour 109

Leather and kid repell us for ordinary wear.
Only the finest and thinnest of Idd dress
gloves find a favored place in the summer
wardrobe ; while the fabric glove, in countless
new guises, becomes increasingly popular
with every successive season. Through June,
July and August, fabric and silk are worn
almost exclusively — and if the period be
short, during these weeks at least the wash-
able glove is without a rival.

Just as the chamoisette, or cotton doeskin,
provides an acceptable substitute for cape
and lambskins for general wear, so the silk
glove — the Italian or Milanaise — becomes
the dress glove for summer and is appro-
priate for all except the most formal occa-
sions. The silk glove, indeed, has recently
been brought to a very high state of perfec-
tion through the growing skill of textile
experts and inventors, and by the application
of the best glove-cutting and sewing methods ;
the latter, which have worked such changes
in the style and fit of kid gloves, have done
no less, proportionately, for the elevating of
the silk glove. The soft, delicate, yet firm
Milanaise silk fabric now clothes the hands
as smoothly, and renders their shape as
comely and as full of character, as the kid
glove long has been wont to do. Indeed, it
disguises the hand even less, and is a real
test of shapely knuckles and tapering finger
tips. Also, the glistening silk itself is pecu-
liarly seductive, at the same time that it
delights the wearer with its luxurious and
cleanly contact.

While kid gloves must be regarded as an
art whose secrets are best known to the

110 Gloves, Past and Present

French, fabric, and particularly silk, gloves
are manufactured with enviable success in
our own country. Doubtless one of the most
interesting glove mills to visit is a well-
known factory located in the Alleghany
industrial district of Pennsylvania, which,
though occupying a comparatively small area,
is wonderfully complete and efficient, and
turns out by the latest approved methods a
large output of high class Milanaise gloves.
The president of this company, who is hands,
feet and brains to his mill — also a practical
inventor and a lover of machines — ^has made
it possible, by courteous attention to every
requirement of the trade, to place upon the
market a superior product, and to win
and hold the confidence of his business
associates.

A visit to this particular mill is doubly
affording to the student of glove-making
because here they weave and dye their own
silk fabric. We are able to follow the
process from a skein of raw silk to the finished
glove in all its accuracy and beauty. Every
step in its evolution is attended with ad-
mirable carefulness and despatch — the glove
emerging almost miraculously from the crude
material as it is passed swiftly from one
operator to another, each worker contribut-
ing one factor more to its final perfection.

The silk strand arrives "in the raw" from
Japan, packed in straw bales, and might
easily be mistaken for a shipment of tea. In
this state the silk resembles fine white hair
or, even more closely, spun sugar. It is sent
in quantities, as needed, to the spinners, and
on its return is put through a boiling

Gloves of the Hour 111

process to remove a gummy substance
inherent in tlie crude product.

The strand is now ready to make the
acquaintance of the machines. First of all,
it must be wound by machinery upon spools.
This process is known, simply, as the wind-
ing process. The neatly, evenly wound silk is
then conveniently fed from the spools onto
other machines which transform it into the
warp or foundation for the silk fabric. These
warps vary greatly in width — some being
like ribbons, measuring about six inches
across, others measuring 144 and even 168
inches. They are delicate webs of shining
silk with the threads running in a single
direction — ^vertically, to be exact.

Weaving machines next receive the warped
silk. Each of these machines is equipped
with four thousand needles, or twenty-eight
needles to every inch, which knit up the
silken w^eb into cloth. As fast as woven, it
is dropped and rolled upon a long cylinder;
it is very soft and satiny and astonishingly
resembles a mass of molasses candy which
has been "pulled" until it is snowy white and
of glistening smoothness. It is now ready to
be dyed. The dyeing is one of the few
primitive steps retained in the entire process.
This operation is performed by hand, and
the material is lifted and worked on long
sticks to ensure evenness of color. 'No
machine is capable of giving such satisfac-
tory results.

The final step in preparing the fabric,
however — the dressing or finishing — is done
by means of an elaborate machine, consisttug
of sets of copper cylinders or rollers. The

112 Gloves, Past and Present

wet, freshly dyed silk clotli is brouglit to tlie
dressing machine a hopeless looking mass of
soppiness and wrinkles. It is rolled upon a
large cylinder which passes it on to one
smaller in diameter, which, in turn, feeds it
off onto a rectangular frame provided with
rows of sharp points, like pin points, on both
edges. Between these points the silk is
stretched as tight as the inflated skin of a
balloon. The frame bearing the taut silk is
then carried through a long, narrow, heated
tent, some twelve feet in extent. It emerges
at the opposite end, thoroughly pressed,
smooth and finished, and is again rolled on
cjdinders with layers of paper between the
breadths of the silk, in case the fabric may
still be a trifle damp, in order to ensure the
perfection of the silk.

The Milanaise or Italian silk is now ready
for the glove makers. First it passes into the
hands of the cutters, who block out and cut
by means of dies pieces of silk of the right
size for each glove. These dies vary accord-
ing to the many different sizes of gloves.
Another set of cutters takes these pieces and
places them in punches which mechanically
cut out the shapes of the fingers and the rein-
forcements for the tips of the first three
fingers. These reinforcements hang onto the
ends of the fingers. Still other cutters cut
out gussets, fourchettes and thumbs from
scraps of the silk cloth, to be fitted into the
glove when it is sewn together later. In this
way every morsel of the silk is utilized.

Before the gloves at this stage are handed
over to the sewers they are stamped in a
press with the name of the company which

Gloves of the Hour 113

has ordered them for its trade. Aluminum
leaf is used in this process, and silver letter-
ing is the result.

Women seated at sewing machines now
receive the cut, marked gloves, and the first
step toward joining their many parts con-
sists in stitching the reinforcements onto the
ends of the fingers. This, of course, gives
the double finger tip and is a protection
against wear. The backs of the gloves next
are finished with fancy embroidery stitcher}^
In the simplest and cheapest gloves this is
accomplished by a single operation. But as
gloves rise in quality and price, the em-
broidered backs become more elaborate.

The thumbs now are stitched together
individually and then are put into the glove
itself. The next set of sewers stitch in the
fourchettes — or sections forming the sides of
the fingers — seam up all the fingers, and close
up the long seam running from end to end of
the glove. Passing into other hands, the
openings at the wrists are skilfully bound
and stiffened, or faced. Trimmers clip off all
superfluous silk in the seams and turn the
gloves right side out on wooden sticks. The
wrists are then neatly hemmed. Clasps of
metal, pearl, or covered with the silk, are
stamped into the wrist facings by machinery
— and the glove is ready for the examiner.

This is one of the most important steps in
the whole process. It guarantees the perfect
condition of every pair of gloves which leaves
this factory, and ensures the merchant and
his customer against any possibility of fraud
in handling or buying the output of this
company. The finished glove is turned on a

114 Gloves, Past and Present

stick resembling tlie glove stretcher com-
monly used at the counter; every seam and
crevice is carefully tested and scrutinized. If
no flaw is discovered the glove is pronounced
ready for the packing room.

In order that the goods may present the
finest appearance possible and that it may
be restored to perfect freshness and shapeli-
ness after passing through so many hands in
the making, the gloves are placed on v^ooden
forms in the packing room and enclosed in a
heated box for from six to seven minutes.
They are then taken out, slipped off the forms,
and given to operators who stitch them
together in pairs, label and tie them, and
pack them in pasteboard boxes according to
size and color. The finished glove is now
ready to be placed on sale, and is fit to
tempt the most discriminating customer of
either sex.

But while the silk glove of recent years
has become a truly progressive industry, let
it not be imagined that the kid glove to-day
is resting upon its laurels — great as its his-
torical prestige certainly is! The methods
of kid glove manufacture are being tirelessly
improved upon; the product itself is of finer
grade than ever before, it presents greater
variety, it is all the time more cleverly
adapted to modern uses. But only the
designer of new styles in this important phase
of apparel can fully appreciate the possibili-
ties of the glove art as they open before him
at the present hour.

The designer of French kid gloves, it goes
without saying, is an artist. He may not be
a Frenchman, however. It is a mistake to

Gloves of the Hour 115

suppose that all the originality and all the
inspiration to create a beautiful article of
dress, acceptable to the fastidious of every
land, must be of French origin. French
influence, to be sure, plays an invaluable part
in the education of such artists; but an
American, with long training in the glove
business, may have both the taste and the
talent to invent glove masterpieces which
will be eagerly adopted, not only in New York,
but also in Paris. A few American experts
actually have accomplished this thing, and
their work is not to be lightly mentioned and
passed over. It deserves our very special
attention.

An artist who designs kid gloves, first of
all has the feeling for gloves as gloves. His
object is to originate something beautiful in
glove form. Next, he knows the technique of
glove-making from A to Z, just as the painter
knows his pigments, the laws of color and of
drawing. The glove designer realizes the
physical limitations of his art, and equally
he divines the developments of which that art
is susceptible. He is thoroughly familiar
with the materials at his disposal, with the
machines and the skilled workers he must
employ to execute his ideas.

At the same time, he has to be something
of a journalist ; he must keep his finger on the
public pulse, and be able to prophesy what
styles men, and especially women, will take
kindly to wearing a season hence. Gloves,
like everything else in dress, must satisfy the
demands of fashion. They must change
because life itself is change. They must
adapt themselves to the costumes the shops

116 Gloves, Past and Present

are showing, to tlie mode of tlie hour, the
latest conception of smartness and good taste.

In the hands of the designer of practical
experience, who is also an artist, this becomes
possible. Yet, to most people, gloves would
appear a very limited field for the expres-
sion of originality! Examine, then, some of
the new designs for this year and season.
They will answer the question whether so
simple and necessarily uniform an article as
the modern glove is capable of much artistic
variation, and from them also we can learn
how such novelties are evolved.

Every large glove company has its own
classical models — that is, there are certain
standard styles of kid gloves of the best
manufacture which virtuall}^ do not change
from season to season. These have names,
which are as well known in the glove trade
as the names of real laces, of old, established
design, to exporters and importers of that
delightful commodity. For instance, in a
famous glove shop on Fifth Avenue, New
York, we are introduced to three classical
styles — the Florine, the Seville and the Isere.
These are all fine French gloves, of a cut
and finish familiar to many of us. They are
the foundation of all the other styles,
which are simply clever variations of these
three.

For example, the Florine, a simple, over-
seam glove, acquires a one-inch cuff of a con-
trasting color — and with it the romantic title
of Bandallette. Many beautiful color com-
binations may be seen in the new Bandallette
— alabaster with a brown cuff, canary with
white, gunmetal with pale grey.

Gloves of the Hour 117

The Seville is clistinguislied by its crochet-
embroidered backs, affording a miicli heavier
finish than the stitching which decorates the
Florine and the Isere. A deeply fringed cuff
of kid is added — and lo, the Spanish cavalier
becomes a knight of quite another cycle!
Hiawatha, this picturesquely slashed glove
of purely American inspiration is called —
most reminiscent of the fringed decorations
of aboriginal chieftains is the odd device
which gives it its new-world Mzarrerie and
flavor. It is especially striking in pure white
and black.

On the other hand, a two-inch cuff sport-
ing large diamonds of white kid set in a black
border — or the colors may be reversed — is
known as the Van Dyck, and doubtless has
caught something of the character of early
Flemish design. The Van Metor may be
mentioned as similar. This is a particularly
beautiful glove when made in white kid,
stitched with black, and adorned with white
cuffs, scalloped or pinked, and appliqued
with black kid cut in deep, sharp points which
taper upward.

The Isere is especially adapted for varia-
tions of a dainty, delicate character. While
the Seville lends itself best to two-toned
embroidery in handsome, heavy effects, on
the backs, the Isere is displaying just now on
a white kid model rows of fine, black feather
stitching between slender lines of plain
stitching.

Another distinguished glove, the work of
the same expert designer, is the Fielder,
vaguely reminiscent of an old English hunt-
ing glove. In black, with a very long wrist.

118 Gloves, Past and Present

the striking feature of the Fielder is the deep,
fan-shaped piece of white set into the wrist
on the under side; it also fastens with a
cleverly adjusted strap, clasped with a white
pearl fastener. This is a very dashing glove.

A black glace with white stitching has a
fancy embroidered design on the back which
gives to it its title of Dagger. The dagger
is delightfully managed in conventionalized
form, and reminds one of the adornments on
crested gloves of ancient days.

Nothing could be more exquisite than the
new gloves embroidered with bow-knots. If
they are black, the bow-knots are in white;
if white, the graceful design is embroidered
in black. Either effect is charming; but the
white gloves seem redolent of old valentine
customs, when the true lovers' knot might
well have appeared upon a perfumed pair of
dainty gift gloves such as these. The wrists
also are parti-colored, gaily striped in white
and black, like Pierrette.

A very long-wristed, modish glove is the
Garnett, in white kid, with four black straps
confining the fulness of the flaring cuff which
is lined with black, and all the stitching black.
Indeed, while delicate tints are seen in many
of the novelties, the effectiveness of the new
designs is best grasped in the black and white
combinations. In any case, mere description
gives little or no notion of the many interest-
ing, beautiful styles which are appearing —
nor of how much imagination and invention
goes into the devising of these styles from
season to season.

There is a world of comfort, too, in the
thought that while such artists as these con-

Gloves of the Hour 119

tinue to concern themselves with gloves as a
thing of beauty — gloves for gloves' sake — ^we
may rest assured that commercialism will not
devour the more subtle distinctions of life.
If such a trifle, let us say, as our gloves is
being zealouly guarded and saved to the
canons of good taste, certainly we may hope
to retain a true sense of elegance, and our
requirements in respect to the little niceties
Avhich make up the general deportment of a
people shall be continually elevated.

If the foregoing description of the gloves
of the hour may have seemed redundant, or
of too ephemeral interest, to the reader, let
him pause and reflect that, after all, we are
ourselves makers of glove history ; and it may
be that glove lovers of the future will be as
grateful to find on record the gloves of our
times, as we have been gratified to rediscover
the glove annals of remote periods of human
history.

FINIS

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