The History of Gloves and the Inventor of Gloves was?

And the Inventor of Gloves Was?

No one really knows who invented gloves as perhaps their inception came about through several inventors at the same time. We can never be sure of this of course, but necessity probably was the 'mother of invention' and it can be assummed that they were in use in one form or another by several early people groups as the need arose.

Early Glove Making
As gloves were most likely a very early development in the history of clothing, the early forms of gloves would have most likely have been a 'mitten like' design made from animal skins.

These mittens would then have been used to protect its wearer from the cold winters of the North or to protect their hands from cuts, grazes and blisters when using crude flint tools.

It has been mentioned that gloves have been found in Egyptian Pyramids, One early and famous example being a linen pair discovered in Egypt in the tomb of King Tutankhamen dating some 1,400 years BC. View a great photograph at Kenneth Garrett Photography ref 3b

Pharaohs wore gloves as a symbol of their power and position while some egyptian women wore gloves as part of their beauty treatments. Women wore gloves to protect them and used fragrant oils and honey on their hands before wearing silk gloves to protect them.

As time went by, glove making began to become a more polished art and the rough mitten deisigns were improved with glove designs allowing the use of fingers individually stitiched to provide a greater freedom and control of the fingers while wearing them.

As early as the 11th Century the glove industry was started in Britain and had one of the oldest known glove making guilds in the world

Read the full history of gloves here.