Gloves, Past and Present

by Willard M. Smith

No history of gloves would be complete which failed to take into account the old French town of Annonay and its celebrated industry. Annonay has been mentioned 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 difficulties which arose over the free exportation of these beautiful leathers to manufacturers outside France. At once the foundation of the glovers’ prosperity, 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 tawing industry.

And right here, for the benefit of the layman, 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 operations. 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 softness and flexibility of the leather may be increased. The actual “tawing” itself consists in treating the skins with a mixture of flour, the yolks of eggs and alum. On the completion 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 activities, 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 produce 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 excellent substitute, as far as style and finish were concerned.

Lambskins, at this period, became the glove of democracy; and Millau, quickly overtaking her foreign competitors, is to-day producing 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 century! The place has been called—and not inappropriately—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 beautiful 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 Ardèche, in south-eastern France, is irregularly and picturesquely built on several small hills, overlooking the deep gorges of the Déôme 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 Déôme, 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 Ardèche flows in close proximity—like the Isère unexcelled for its purity. By virtue of the especial qualities of its waters, Annonay has become what it is—the chief home of French dressers of glacé kid skins.

The climate, like that environing Grenoble, is particularly favorable to the raising of goats and sheep. The Cevannes mountains almost cover the department of the Ardèche, and their spurs provide rich grazing country. The peasants are shepherds worthy of that ancient calling. The young kids are as carefully 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 piqué and prick-seam 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 corresponding 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 buy their skins “in the raw” at the Spring fairs, which are held at various centres throughout France. When they have assembled their lots, they then ship them to the dressing factory in Annonay.