Gloves and Neckwear

A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a type of garment which covers the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Fingerless gloves with one large opening rather than individual openings for each fingers are sometimes called gauntlets. Gloves which cover the entire hand but do not have separate finger openings or sheaths are called mittens.

A gardening glove

Long Satin Glove

Leather gloves

A blue disposable nitrile glove, as worn for medical examination

Gloves can serve to protect and comfort the hands of the wearer against cold or heat, physical damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a guard for what a bare hand should not touch. Latex, nitrile rubber or vinyl disposable gloves are often worn by healthcare professionals as hygiene and contamination protection measures. Police officers often wear them to work in crime scenes to prevent destroying evidence in the scene. Many criminals also wear these gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints, which make the crime investigation more difficult.

Fingerless gloves are useful for cold environments where dexterity is required that gloves would restrict. Cigarette smokers and church organists often use fingerless gloves. Some gloves include a gauntlet that extends partway up the arm. Cycling gloves for road racing or touring are usually fingerless.

Gloves have been made of many materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex, neoprene and metal (as in chain mail). Modern gloves made of kevlar protect the wearer from cuts.

Today gloves are made around the world. Most expensive women's gloves are still made in France, with some made in Canada. For cheaper male gloves New York State, especially Gloversville, New York is still a world centre of glove manufacturing. More and more glove manufacturing is being done in east Asia, however.

History

Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. According to some translations of Homer's The Odyssey, Laërtes is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden so as to avoid the brambles. (Other translations, however, insist that Laertes pulled his long sleeves over his hands.) Herodotus, in The History of Herodotus (440 BC), tells how Leotychides was incriminated by a glove (gauntlet) full of silver that he received as a bribe. Among the Romans also there are occasional references to the use of gloves. According to Pliny the Younger (ca. 100), his uncle's shorthand writer wore gloves during the winter so as not to impede the elder Pliny's work.

Gloves are also used for fashion, ceremonial, and religious purposes. British and European Ladies in the 13th century began to wear gloves as fashion ornaments. They were made of linen and silk and sometimes reached to the elbow. It was not until the 16th century that they reached their greatest elaboration, however, when Queen Elizabeth I set the fashion for wearing them richly embroidered and jeweled.

Embroidered and jeweled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Matthew of Paris, in recording the burial of Henry II of England in 1189, mentions that be was buried in his coronation robes with a golden crown on his head and gloves on his hands. Gloves were also found on the hands of King John when his tomb was opened in 1797 and on those of King Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774.

Pontifical gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and bishops. They may be worn only at the celebration of mass. The liturgical use of gloves has not been traced beyond the beginning of the 10th century, and their introduction may have been due to a simple desire to keep the hands clean for the holy mysteries, but others suggest that they were adopted as part of the increasing pomp with which the Carolingian bishops were surrounding themselves. From the Frankish kingdom the custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of the 11th century.

Latex gloves, ubiquitous in surgery and forensics, were developed by the Australian Ansell company.

Types of Glove

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Commercial and industrial

• Barbed wire handler's gloves
• Chainsaw gloves
• firemen's gauntlets
• Medical gloves
• Welder's gloves

Sport and recreational

• Archer's glove
• Baseball glove or catcher's mitt: in baseball, the players in the field wear gloves to help them to catch the ball and prevent injury to their hands.
• Billiards glove
• Boxing glove: a specialized padded mitten
• Cricket gloves
• Cycling gloves
• Driving gloves - often leather as to increase grip and prevent slipping of the wheel. Usually to increase overall handling of the vehicle.
• Falconer's glove
• Football - Goalkeeper's gloves
• Fencing glove
• Gardening glove
• Ice hockey mitt
• Riding gloves
• Motorcycling gloves
• Scuba diving gloves :
  • cotton gloves; good abrasion but no thermal protection
  • wet gloves; made of neoprene and allowing water entry
  • dry gloves; made of rubber with a latex wrist seal to prevent water entry
• Yachting glove

Specialized Gloves

• Wired glove
• Oven gloves - or Oven mitts, for use when cooking
• Washing glove: a tool for washing the body (one's own, or of a child, a patient, a lover).
• Wheelchair gloves - for users of manual Wheelchairs
• Power Glove - an alternate controller for use with the Nintendo Entertainment System

Fashion gloves

• wedding and cotillion gloves
• evening gloves

The wearing of gloves as a woman's fashion accessory fell out of favour in the latter decades of the 20th century, except that girls still wear gloves as part of "dressy" outfits, such as church on Easter Sunday. Ladies gloves for formal and semi-formal wear come in three lengths for women: wrist, elbow, and opera or full-length (over the elbow, reaching to the bicep).

The most expensive are full-length gloves custom-made of kid leather. Satin and stretch satin materials are extremely popular and there are mass-produced varieties well within the average budget.

Gentlemen only wear fashion gloves on the most formal of occasions. This is somewhat subjective, as men also may wear "fashion" gloves outside of white tie occasions. Some find it to be in personal style, to protect their hands from allergens and germs, or to remove themselves from physical contact.

Winter gloves

• acrylic
• woolen
• leather

External sources and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Gloves

• Pliny the Younger: Selected Letters
• The History of Herodotus by Herodotus, Volume VI, at classics.mit.edu

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.