Gloves & Mittens

Documentation from a project inspired by photos of medieval felt mittens. Includes discussion of the manufacture of felt in Scandinavia.

Notes and information on constructing split mittens, which were worn by workers and falconers.

A piece of a 13th-Centu ry mitten was found in a Votic cemetery in Jouga in 1949, but remained largely unknown until the beginning of 21st Century. A brief study has been published that describes the properties of fibre, yarn and colour. The knitting aspect of this mitten remains unknown.

A flag-fan, glove, and pendant in the shape of a gondola, all from Venice ca. 1600.

Crimson silk velvet worked in satin and split stitch with sequins, gilt thread, and silk floss dyed in twelve different colors. England. Circa 1600.

By the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), gloves had also become a status symbol.

A Reproducti on of a 15th Century Style Falconer’s Gauntlet. By Lady Brianna McBain CoM, CoSC

These knit gloves look much more difficult than they actually are -- if you can knit a stocking, you can definitely make these. They are loosely based on ecclesiast ical gloves and the riding gloves worn by nobles in period.

A summary of accessorie s for outfits for Italian women in the early 16th century.

A brief history of gloves, and lengthy descriptio n of the constructi on of a pair of gloves.

Extant examples of gloves and mittens, as well as illustrations and portraits in which gloves or mittens appear. Includes three-fingered mittens (aka "split mittens").

A bibliograp hy of sources on several leatherwor king-relat ed subjects compiled from the catalogue of the specialist library collection at the Walsall Leather Museum.

A blog post with photos of leather items found on the Mary Rose (which sank in 1545), including bracers, a mitten, an arrow-spac er, leather bottles and buckets, shoes and boots, scabbards, and pouches.

On glove-perfumers back to the 12th century.

Also online at www.archive.org/details/royalhistoricglo00redf

Gloves; making gloves; muffs; history of muffs and gloves; references.

In the predominan tly agrarian economy of sixteenth- and seventeent h-century England, the most important industries were associated with agricultur e. Contempora ries usually took the leather industry for granted, with the result that historians have largely ignored it. Yet there are grounds for regarding this industry as second or third only to the manufactur e of woolen cloth as an industrial occupation .

The Company has not forgotten its heritage nor its obligation s to posterity and within the Glove Collection Charitable Trust, it maintains and preserves a magnificen t collection of gloves since the 16th century to the present day, making it available to the public as far as possible. To this end the Collection has been digitally photograph ed and descriptiv e text prepared and the resulting comprehens ive catalogue forms part of this web site.

Informatio n about three mittens made of fabric from settlement -period Iceland. Includes links to translatio ns of the original publicatio ns.