CLOTHING THE EXTREMITIES 



Although it is undoubtedly true that gloves were 

 worn by women for protection quite as early as by men, 

 they did not form part of the dress of ladies until com- 

 paratively recent times. In England they were worn 

 in the fourteenth century, and by the sixteenth century 

 they were made with elaborate embroidery and set 

 with costly gems. After this period, however, plainer 

 gloves were introduced, made in practically the same 

 manner as the ordinary glove of to-day; and while 

 the fashions have changed slightly from time to time 

 during the three intervening centuries, the gloves of 

 to-day are practically identical with the gloves worn 

 in the time of Queen Elizabeth. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF GLOVES 



As early as the middle of the twelfth century glove- 

 making had become of such importance that societies of 

 handicraftsmen known as "glovers" had been formed 

 in several European countries, France and Scotland 

 being the first to organize such societies. These so- 

 cieties had a decidedly beneficial effect upon both the 

 trade in gloves and in the products themselves, as they 

 controlled the material for making the gloves and pre- 

 vented dishonest workmanship. By the fifteenth cen- 

 tury these glovers' societies had secured many favora- 

 ble legislative acts, and in the seventeenth century a 

 society of glovers was organized in London which soon 

 made that city the great center of glove manufacture, 

 a position that it has held ever since. 



The industry flourished in Ireland also, and the 

 "Limerick glove" became famous for its exquisite 



