Chapter VI.
GLOVES IN MANY MARTS
“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 the 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 indebted 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 maintained the simple lines on which they had been founded, their inmates were the most skillful and industrious of artisans. Weaving, illuminating, gardening, embroidery, woodwork—these and many other occupations 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.’
“The brethren not only practiced,” says Beck, “but taught. The monastery became as much the centre of industry as of intellect; and religion was made an active worker with commerce in furthering national interests. 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 perfection. 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 thus, to a limited degree, were put into circulation. The Earl of Oxford, on one occasion, curried favor with Queen Elizabeth by presenting Her Majesty with beautiful, perfumed 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 subject, their trade was popularized, and the glove market, in the modern sense, grew up in response to the increasing demand.