A Mini History Moment about gloves in Shakespeare’s time, the Regency, and the role of the female gloveress
- intro
- Queen Elizabeth
- gloveresses 1700’s
- John Shakespeare
- Regency glove etiquette
- Leap Day & 12 pairs, 1288
Intro:
On our recent England trip, we went to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, because what writer can go through the English midlands and not stop by Stratford-upon-Avon? I was inspired by their display of John Shakespeare’s glove workshop, so here are macaroon-sized bits of a millenia of the history of English gloves.
Queen Elizabeth popularizes fancy gloves
Queen Elizabeth I helped to bring bejewelled and embroidered gloves into fashion among the wealthy. She had beautiful hands with strinkingly long fingers. At one ceremony in 1566, the queen “pulled off and put on her gloves over one hundred times so that all might enjoy her graceful hand movements.” (Ruckel)
The Role of the Gloveress
In the 1700’s, thousands of women and girls worked as a “gloveress.” The leather cutters would bundle together the prepared leather and thread and women would sew the gloves in their homes. The glovers would bundle the payment for the previous completed batch in the materials for the new assignment. Although the leather cutters made 3-4 times as much as the gloveresses, having any income empowered women.
John Shakespeare, the whittawer
When the foreign import tax was changed in 1826, gloves could be imported cheaply from the Continent, and the English glove industry struggled significantly. English craft registries estimate there are fewer than 10 craftspeople cutting gloves today, and fewer than 50 working in the industry.
John Shakespeare was a “whittawer” (leather maker) and one of the 22 glovers in Stratford, which earned him prosperity and civic positions. If you needed to protect your hands from the cold, prickly garden plants, or rough work, you could select a pair of pre-made gloves. But if you were a wealthy gentleman, you could special order a pair to fit your hands. Since you had servants to do the hard labor, your gloves looked even better tucked in your belt or pocket, with the ornate embroidery facing out.
Several tidbits about Regency glove etiquette:
- -Gentlemen should remove their right glove in order to shake hands with another gentleman, and if they were meeting many other gentlemen they could just leave their right glove off.
- -However, they must leave their gloves on if they were greeting or dancing with a lady… unless the lady was “ungloved,” in which case it was only respectable to also remove one’s gloves.
- -“If you meet an elderly man in the street, withdraw your own glove instantly, and desire him not to take his own glove off.”
- -In their own homes, ladies would still wear gloves, although probably knitted and fingerless so that they could easily write and sew.
- -But everyone takes off their gloves when it’s time to eat or drink!
- In a tradition dating back to St Bridget, on Leap Day women are allowed to propose marriage. In 1288, Queen Margaret of Scotland codified that if the gentleman refuses, he must gift the lady a dozen pairs of gloves.
After seeing all the work that goes into cutting and sewing, I have to conclude – that’s a lot of gloves!





