A Brief History of the Glove

By Carol Schwartzott
Freeville, New York: Lilliput Press, 2020. Edition of 15.
 
Approximate 4” x 5”x 1”; 46 pages including free end pages. Flutter book construction. Printed on mohawk cover stock using pigmented inks. Illustrations hand-colored with pencils then scanned for printing. One page of sample materials used for gloves. Boards and slipcase are paste-paper. Illustrated papers on pastedowns. Signed and numbered by the artist.
 
Carol Schwartzott: "'A Brief History of Gloves' is a project that I began about 15 years ago….I have always been fascinated by hands. This book began with my collection of family gloves, handed down to me along with other accessories….a pair of beautiful opera length kid gloves and a pair of lace and net, both worn by my mother as a young woman. It started a journey for me, purchasing several books on history and technique. I began taking notes, checking out museum collections, and searching out all the different types of gloves and their use.
 
"As usual, things get in the way and I place this project on the side while I deal with other books, selling property, building a new house, moving half a year to Florida, and divesting tons of my studio equipment as I no longer have a studio just for my work. This winter, bored in Florida, I began to work again on the gloves book….and just like that, Covid appears and everyone is 'gloving up' with sterile latex, and I say, Oh Boy…..how can that be? So I proceed with my text and begin to develop my usual thematic approach….history, style, geography, timeline….and another 'Brief History' appears. "A simple fold-out accordion, very much like others in my series, 24 pages, illustrations developed by drawing over photographic images, later hand-colored with pencil."