Gloves: An Intimate History

Description

A captivating history of gloves both real and mythical, practical and high fashion.   This beautifully illustrated history of gloves draws on examples from across the world to explore their cultural significance. From hand-knitted mittens to exquisitely embroidered confections, and from the three-fingered gloves of medieval shepherds to Bluetooth-enabled examples that function like a mobile phone, gloves’ extraordinary variety is a tribute to human ingenuity. So, too, is the remarkable diversity of their—often contradictory—cultural associations. They have been linked to honor, identity, and status, but also to decadence and deceit. In this book, Anne Green discusses gloves both as material objects with their own fascinating history and as fictional creations in folktales, literature, films, etiquette manuals, paintings, and advertisements. Looking to the runway, Green even explores their recent resurgence as objects of high fashion. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Introduction One: ‘Musk-scented, fragrant, invented by Venus’: Early Gloves Two: Tranks, Forgits and Quirks: Making Gloves Three: ‘Tear at the Thumb, Troubles to Come’: The Language of Gloves Four:‘Fashioned by the Craft of Devils, and with Skins of the Dragon’: Magical Gloves Five: ‘Place this Glove neere thy Heart’: Gloves and Loves Six: Archers, Artists and Astronauts: Functions Old and New References Bibliography Photo Acknowledgements Index