Fig. 92.—A modern kid glove showing the fourchettes or pieces between the fingers, which form three pointed V’s.
Fig. 93.—Queen Elizabeth’s coronation glove showing the stitching carried down on to the back. (From a photograph by the courtesy of Messrs. Fownes Brothers and Co.)
A third suggestion which may occur, is that the ornamentation is a survival from the time when great men, particularly prelates, had various devices and even jewels fixed to the back of their gloves. Once more, however, we meet with the difficulty in the shape of the point that there are always three of the marks.
In making a careful investigation into the true origin of the vestiges we can, on the one side, endeavour to see whether there is anything in the form of the hand which can have given rise to the number three, that is so constant; and on the other, whether the glove-makers have any particular name for the marks which may throw some light upon them. In connection with the first line of research, it will be seen on spreading out the fingers that there are, if we ignore the thumb which has its insertion lower down in the hand, three “V”-shaped openings between them, and we find on taking up our second clue that the ornaments are called “points.” Now there is a point at the bottom of a “V,” and this is well seen in looking at a glove where the pieces or fourchettes which form the insides of the fingers meet (see Figure [92]); but if this is evident in a modern glove, it is very much more so in old gloves. (See Figure [93].)
A result of this fact was that the stitching which made the fingers was carried down for some distance on to the back of the glove, as seen in Queen Elizabeth’s coronation glove. (See Figure [93].)
This stitching was and is often somewhat elaborate, and in some cases a line of embroidery covered it. This is well seen in the glove of Anne, the Queen Consort of James I (see Figure [94]); and here it is noticeable that the two lines of embroidery at the points of the three “V’s” run parallel and touching each other, so that we get a beginning of the three “points” as we know them. With improvements in the making of the fourchettes, the stitching terminated more abruptly, and the embroidery was allowed to remain on the back of the glove, where it is still to be seen.