Glove Museum



November 5, 2008

My visit to the Dents Factory and Museum in Warminster felt like a step back in time. John Cundick (Quality controller at Dents) showed me the glove collection, and presented me with lots of extraordinary curiosities, much of it stored in dark plans chests, and every glove had a story attached. There were the smallest gloves in the world, a bit larger than a stamp, the blue suede gloves belonging to the joker (Jack Nicholson) in the 1988 batman film that were so popular that they were mass produced several times in numerous colours, gloves that fitted into a walnut shell, numerous photos of glovers at work, and glove moulds, hand measuring devices and glovers sewing machines.

Images from the Museum
clockwise from top left

Vesta Tilley’s glove shown by John Cundick (Curator of Dents Glove Museum)
Nelsons gloves, still with the bloodstains from the battle of Waterloo
Gloves and pattern made for Michael Keatons Batman in 1988
Cream lace armlength glove 1880-1900 (French)
Assorted glove moulds and glove irons
Striped glove (one from a range of brightly coloured leather gloves from 60/70s)

glove museum blog 02

Below are some gloves made for a joke, only covering the fingers ends.

joke gloves

Afterwards I was given a tour of the factory by Roger Brett, and I have decided to film part of ‘Glover’ there. I will have to film around the florescent lighting but the racks of glove templates and gloving machines are very evocative of a past era. The close ups of Glover’s hands will be actual glovemakers from the factory dexterously stamping out glove leather and cutting it with shears. This will be composited with the stop motion footage of Amit as ‘Glover’.

About the author



November 5, 2008

Jo Lawrence is a new media artist. Originally interested in line-drawn illustration, her work has developed to encompass collage, puppets and stop-frame animation. Jo was Artist in Residence at the...

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Comments

I have four pairs of possibly Edwardian, ladies white kid gloves. They don’t seem to have been worn. They are of different lengths. There is a number 6 in three of the pairs. I believe them to be heirlooms of my family.
How can I find out more about them?

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