In the 19th century gloves were an indispensable accessory for women. They were worn for day and evening wear. Wealthy women owned many pairs suited to different occasions and carefully chosen to match particular outfits. Strict rules applied to the wearing of gloves. A woman would be considered undressed if she left the house ungloved and it was customary, for instance, to keep gloves on in church, at the theatre and at balls but to remove them before dining.

For the first half of the 19th century women's day gloves remained short. Although plainer than evening wear they were rarely as plain as men's day gloves and were available in a wide range of colours and with a variety of novel additions. These white kid women's day gloves stitched with cream silk and laced with a cream silk cord, would have been one of the more acceptable novelties, although not approved of by all. One writer in an article on gloves in the Queen in 1862, commenting on a similar pair in pink remarked, 'Some of the wearers of pink gloves had tassels pendant from their wrists; the pink gloves and the tassels are both in such bad taste that I was glad to see them together.' The small fastening at the front of the wrist is accompanied by a back opening of metal eyelet holes through which the cord is threaded and tightened finishing in tassels which hung down while worn. A slim, elegant hand was considered a sign of good breeding and women's gloves became ever closer fitting. The gloves shown in this image appear incredibly narrow by today's standards, the double fastening would have aided a tight fit and the points which decorate the back and extend almost to the finger, make the hand appear more slender. The scalloped edge, which would have barely been seen, provides another decorative element.