were worn were not so carefully defined as now, the use varying in different churches. Nor were the liturgical colours prescribed. The most characteristic feature of the medieval pontifical glove was the ornament (tasellus, fibula, monile, paratura) set in the middle of the back of the glove. This was usually a small plaque of metal, enamelled or jewelled, generally round, but sometimes square or irregular in shape. Sometimes embroidery was substituted; still more rarely the whole glove was covered, even to the fingers, with elaborate needlework designs.
Liturgical gloves have not been worn by Anglican bishops since the Reformation, though they are occasionally represented as wearing them on their effigies.
See J. Braun, S.J., Die liturgische Gewandung (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1907), pp. 359-382, where many beautiful examples are illustrated.
Manufacture of Gloves.—Three countries, according to an old proverb, contribute to the making of a good glove—Spain dressing the leather, France cutting it and England sewing it. But the manufacture of gloves was not introduced into Great Britain till the 10th or 11th century. The incorporation of glovers of Perth was chartered in 1165, and in 1190 a glove-makers’ gild was formed in France, with the object of regulating the trade and ensuring good workmanship. The glovers of London in 1349 framed their ordinances and had them approved by the corporation, the city regulations at that time fixing the price of a pair of common sheepskin gloves at 1d. In 1464, when the gild received armorial bearings, they do not seem to have been very strong, but apparently their position improved subsequently and in 1638 they were incorporated as a new company. In 1580 it is recorded that both French and Spanish gloves were on sale in London shops, and in 1661 a company of glovers was incorporated at Worcester, which still remains an important seat of the English glove industry. In America the manufacture of gloves dates from about 1760, when Sir William Johnson brought over several families of glove makers from Perth; these settled in Fulton county, New York, which is now the largest seat of the glove trade in the United States.
Gloves may be divided into two distinct categories, according as these are made of leather or are woven or knitted from fibres such as silk, wool or cotton. The manufacture of the latter kinds is a branch of the hosiery industry. For leather gloves skins of various animals are employed—deer, calves, sheep and lambs, goats and kids, &c.—but kids have had nothing to do with the production of many of the “kid gloves” of commerce. The skins are prepared and dressed by special processes (see Leather) before going to the glove-maker to be cut. Owing to the elastic character of the material the cutting is a delicate operation, and long practice is required before a man becomes expert at it. Formerly it was done by shears, the workmen following an outline marked on the leather, but now steel dies are universally employed not only for the bodies of the gloves but also for the thumb-pieces and fourchettes or sides of the fingers. When hand sewing is employed the pieces to be sewn together are placed between a pair of jaws, the holding edges of which are serrated with fine saw-teeth, and the sewer by passing the needle forwards and backwards between each of these teeth secures neat uniform stitching. But sewing machines are now widely employed on the work. The labour of making a glove is much subdivided, different operators sewing different pieces, and others again embroidering the back, forming the button-holes, attaching the buttons, &c. After the gloves are completed, they undergo the process of “laying off,” in which they are drawn over metal forms, shaped like a hand and heated internally by steam; in this way they are finally smoothed and shaped before being wrapped in paper and packed in boxes.
Gloves made of thin indiarubber or of white cotton are worn by some surgeons while performing operations, on account of the ease with which they can be thoroughly sterilized.
GLOVER, SIR JOHN HAWLEY (1829–1885), captain in the
British navy, entered the service in 1841 and passed his examination
as lieutenant in 1849, but did not receive a commission till
May 1851. He served on various stations, and was wounded
severely in an action with the Burmese at Donabew (4th
February 1853). But his reputation was not gained at sea and
as a naval officer, but on shore and as an administrative official
in the colonies. During his years of service as lieutenant in the
navy he had had considerable experience of the coast of Africa,
and had taken part in the expedition of Dr W. B. Baikie (1824–1864)
up the Niger. On the 21st of April 1863 he was appointed
administrator of the government of Lagos, and in that capacity,
or as colonial secretary, he remained there till 1872. During this
period he had been much employed in repelling the marauding
incursions of the Ashantis. When the Ashanti war broke out
in 1873, Captain Glover undertook the hazardous and doubtful
task of organizing the native tribes, whom hatred of the Ashantis
might be expected to make favourable to the British authorities—to
the extent at least to which their fears would allow them to act.
His services were accepted, and in September of 1873 he landed at
Cape Coast, and, after forming a small trustworthy force of
Hausa, marched to Accra. His influence sufficed to gather a
numerous native force, but neither he nor anybody else could
overcome their abject terror of the ferocious Ashantis to the
extent of making them fight. In January 1874 Captain Glover
was able to render some assistance in the taking of Kumasi,
but it was at the head of a Hausa force. His services were
acknowledged by the thanks of parliament and by his creation
as G.C.M.G. In 1875 he was appointed governor of Newfoundland
and held the post till 1881, when he was transferred to the
Leeward Islands. He returned to Newfoundland in 1883, and
died in London on the 30th September 1885.
Lady Glover’s Life of her husband appeared in 1897.
GLOVER, RICHARD (1712–1785), English poet, son of Richard
Glover, a Hamburg merchant, was born in London in 1712. He
was educated at Cheam in Surrey. While there he wrote in his
sixteenth year a poem to the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, which
was prefixed by Dr Pemberton to his View of Newton’s Philosophy,
published in 1728. In 1737 he published an epic poem in praise
of liberty, Leonidas, which was thought to have a special reference
to the politics of the time; and being warmly commended by the
prince of Wales and his court, it soon passed through several
editions. In 1739 Glover published a poem entitled London, or
the Progress of Commerce; and in the same year, with a view to
exciting the nation against the Spaniards, he wrote a spirited
ballad, Hosier’s Ghost, very popular in its day. He was also the
author of two tragedies, Boadicea (1753) and Medea (1761),
written in close imitation of Greek models. The success of
Glover’s Leonidas led him to take considerable interest in politics,
and in 1761 he entered parliament as member for Weymouth.
He died on the 25th of November 1785. The Athenaid, an epic in
thirty books, was published in 1787, and his diary, entitled
Memoirs of a distinguished literary and political Character from
1742 to 1757, appeared in 1813. Glover was one of the reputed
authors of Junius; but his claims—which were advocated in an
Inquiry concerning the author of the Letters of Junius (1815), by
R. Duppa—rest on very slight grounds.
GLOVERSVILLE, a city of Fulton county, New York,
U.S.A., at the foot-hills of the Adirondacks, about 55 m. N.W.
of Albany. Pop. (1890) 13,864; (1900) 18,349, of whom 2542
were foreign-born; (1910 census) 20,642. It is served by
the Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville railway (connecting
at Fonda, about 9 m. distant, with the New York Central),
and by electric lines connecting with Johnstown, Amsterdam
and Schenectady. The city has a public library (26,000
volumes in 1908), the Nathan Littauer memorial hospital,
a state armoury and a fine government building. Gloversville
is the principal glove-manufacturing centre in the United
States. In 1900 Fulton county produced more than 57%,
and Gloversville 38.8%, of all the leather gloves and mittens
made in the United States; in 1905 Gloversville produced 29.9%
of the leather gloves and mittens made in the United States,
its products being valued at $5,302,196. Gloversville has more
than a score of tanneries and leather-finishing factories, and
manufactures fur goods. In 1905 the city’s total factory product
was valued at $9,340,763. The extraordinary localization of the
glove-making industry in Gloversville, Johnstown and other
parts of Fulton county, is an incident of much interest in the
economic history of the United States. The industry seems to
have had its origin among a colony of Perthshire families,
including many glove-makers, who were settled in this region by
Sir William Johnson about 1760. For many years the entire
product seems to have been disposed of in the neighbourhood,
but about 1809 the goods began to find more distant markets,
and by 1825 the industry was firmly established on a prosperous
