17th Century Gloves

It is only very occasionally that fashionable dress from the 17th century is displayed in museums in this country. This is because dress from over 400 years ago just does not survive for posterity. On the 22 September, however, the Council-run Fashion Museum in Bath opens a small display of some of the rarest surviving historic pieces of fashions from the 17th century in any museum anywhere in the world.

The new display at the Bath & North East Somerset Council-run museum, includes nearly 20 examples of beautifully decorated gloves, ranging in date from the early years of the century when James I was King to the 1660s when his grandson Charles II was restored to the throne.

All of the gloves are on loan to the Fashion Museum from The Gloves’ Collections Trust, a special body set up by the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London to care for what is possibly the finest collection of historic gloves in the world. The collection is known as the Spence collection, as it was formed by antiquarian Robert Spence and given to the Worshipful Company in 1959.

For more information on the Gloves exhibition, and the Fashion Museum log onto www.fashionmuseum.co.uk. The Museum is open daily, 11.00-17.00, exit 18.00.

Venue

Fashion Museum, Central Bath

Dates

1 Mar 2008 - 31 Oct 2008

1 Nov 2008 - 31 Dec 2008