Friday, September 20, 2019

Gloves

Hi all,

I don't post much these days but I keep the blog up for reference work. However, I came across this interesting tidbit from the 1891 Britannica.

"Paris is, beyond question, the most important centre of glove-making, and for delicacy of material and beauty of workmanship the productions of some Parisian manufacturers are without any rivals; but it is at Grenoble that French gloves are most extensively manufactured. English gloves, of unfailing excellence of material and workmanship, are principally made at Worcester; and in one specialty— "dogskin gloves made from Cape sheep-skin, having a warm tan color—English makers have no competitors. A very large quantity of cheap but useful gloves are made at Brussels and Copenhagen. During the year 1876,1,084,400 dozen pairs, of a value of £1,380,884, were imported into the United Kingdom from France; from Belgium there were 301,305 dozen pairs, valued at £345,174; and the total imports from all quarters amounted to 1,497,437 dozen pairs, of a value of £1,840,956. In 1878 the total imports were 1,000,040 dozen pairs, valued at £1,302,060.
Buckskin gloves are largely made in the United States, and that branch, together with a limited production of kid and other gloves, is chiefly centred in the village of Gloversville, Fulton co., N. Y. It is estimated that from about 140 separate glove factories in that village not less than two-thirds of the gloves made in the United States are sent out. Kid gloves are made to some extent in New York city."