Handschoen van glacéleer, kort model, sluiting met drie knopen van parelmoer c. 1900 - 1925

Editor: These glacé leather gloves, dating from around 1900 to 1925, present an image of restrained elegance. Their short design and pearly button closures hint at a bygone era of formality. How do you interpret these objects? Curator: This photograph captures more than just a pair of gloves; it speaks to a period of significant socio-economic stratification and the gendered expectations placed on women. The Arts and Crafts movement, with its emphasis on handcrafted quality, intersected with these expectations, creating objects that both adorned and confined. What do these gloves *do*? How do they impact the wearer's movements and interactions? Editor: That’s an interesting perspective. I initially saw them as merely decorative, but considering their practicality and what they might have restricted makes me rethink their meaning. Curator: Exactly. A soft glacé leather, while beautiful, could limit a woman’s ability to engage in physical labor or even everyday tasks without risking damage. These gloves then become a symbol of status, indicating a life of leisure, perhaps even subservience to patriarchal norms, requiring maintenance and careful handling. Notice also their whiteness, suggesting an anxiety around the stain of work, of transgression. What stories do they tell about race, class, and gender performance? Editor: I hadn’t thought of that at all. The connection to limiting a woman’s world in some ways hadn’t crossed my mind. Curator: Considering objects within their historical and social contexts allows us to unpack these layered meanings, seeing them not just as aesthetic artifacts, but as agents within broader power structures. So how do you feel now about this pair of gloves? Editor: I see them now with new eyes. They are beautiful, yes, but also burdened with complex cultural messages that are worth remembering. Thanks for revealing so much.