Gloves

1620–40

Not on view

Gloves are replete with associations to love, honor, and loyalty, and these accessories played an important symbolic role in the portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As a surrogate for their owner, gloves could be indicative of both romantic love or political allegiance, as when a woman's glove was bestowed upon her chosen contestant to be worn in a tournament.

The gauntlets on this pair of gloves contain small birds and flaming hearts, surely symbols of romantic devotion. The symbol of the flaming heart in a cartouche also appears in a Dutch collection of embroidery designs for fashionable accessories, dating to the 1620s, in the Museum's collection.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

Title: Gloves
Date: 1620–40
Culture: British or Dutch
Medium: Leather; silk worked with silk and metal threads, spangles; long-and-short, knot, satin, and couching stitches; metal thread bobbin lace
Dimensions: L. 12 1/2 x W. 5 3/4 inches (31.8 x 14.6 cm)
Classification: Textiles-Embroidered
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Edward S. Harkness, 1928
Object Number: 28.220.3, .4
Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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Night cap, Linen worked with silk and metal threads, spangles; chain, stem, darning, detached buttonhole, and plaited braid stitches, British — Night cap
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Settee (one of a pair), John Mayhew British, Gilded fruitwood; wool and silk (22-24 warps per inch, 9-10 per centimeter), British and French — Settee (one of a pair)
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State bed from Hampton Court, Herefordshire, Wood covered in blue silk damask, British — State bed from Hampton Court, Herefordshire
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Bible and Book of Common Prayer, Robert Barker , London, 1607, Satin worked with silk and metal thread, spangles; long-and-short, split, satin, couching, brick, and knot stitches, British — Bible and Book of Common Prayer
Robert Barker
ca. 1607

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