Gentlemen were expected to wear gloves with day and evening wear in Victorian England. While white was the only acceptable style for evening, colours could be worn during the day. Further distinctions were made between town and country wear. Hard wearing buff or tan leather was thought suitable for the country with black, brown, blue and dark green considered the most respectable colours for town wear from the mid-century.

The blue calf leather glove shown in this image was hand-sewn. The seams are finely oversewn using a contrasting white silk thread. The glove is simply and elegantly decorated with long points worked with a double row of white tambour (chain) stitching, terminating in a heart-shaped motif formed from two stitches. The cuff is finished with a strip of very narrow white leather.

The glove is wrist length and without a fastening which was the fashion at the time. Gloves were designed to be close fitting, and the signs of wear over the knuckles and at the finger ends of this glove show that it has been well used.