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I forward this from Bob Tittler at Concordia, who is not (alas) a member of REED-L, so if you have any helpful information, please send it to him at the address below and not to the list! A. ==================== >From:Bob Tittler <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: Gloves >What evidence is there of the use of gloves as a symbol of commerce or >marketing? The question arises from my effort to investigate the iconography >of mayoral and aldermanic portraits before 1640. Gloves are frequently >held, as they are also in other types of portraits. But Gary Shaw, in his >book on Wells, finds gloves exchanged at the admission of new freemen to >the town, as a token of the new freeman's respect for the rest. Totnes >paid 3d for 'a payer of glooves againste the fayer', where they were >probably affixed on a pole as a sign that the fair was open for business. >And Barnstaple also records an expenditure for a 'market glove'. Brewer's >Dictionary suggests that gloves may have been a symbol of honesty--a >gloved hand was a clean hand, i.e., not open to corruption. Any comparable >or additional references along these lines?? As Shakespeare's father seems >to have been connecvted with the glovers' business, I assume that >historians of Renaissance drama may have thought about this). Many >thanks!