1615 / 1625, United Kingdom

A pair of dyed kidskin gloves decorated at the cuff with silver-gilt thread and satin stitch and raised work in silk thread in a floral pattern. The cuff is lined and edged with pink silk and trimmed with silver-gilt thread fringe. Gloves could serve several purposes in early 17th century Britain, apart from the obvious ones of protection and warmth. Many were solely decorative, to display the wealth and status of their owner. They were worn in the hat or belt, as well as carried in the hand. Gloves were popular as gifts and were exchanged as a gesture of engagement or wedding present. In combat, a glove was thrown down as a gage, or challenge. This pair form part of the Hannah Downes collection of needlework, executed by four generations of women between the late 17th and 19th centuries in Britain. Their decoration is characteristic of the period 1615 to 1625 with couched embroidery in a floral pattern and fringe of metal thread. The early date suggests that the gloves possibly belonged to an ancestor of the first embroiderer in the Downes collection, Hannah Downes, whose earliest work dates 1683. Pair of gloves, embroidered kidskin, 1615-1625, British; Silk, silver-gilt thread and fringe