A single buff leather glove, traditionally believed to have belonged to King Charles I, circa 1630-40, worked with delicate stylised honeysuckle motifs in wine silk and gold thread, the remains of looped gold thread strapwork, edged and part lined in pale brown silk, golden fringes to the gauntlet edge, 35cm, 13 3/4in long excluding fringes and 10cm, 4in wide across the palm Provenance: By descent via the Woodd and Hampden families, who were both Royalist supporters and were joined by marriage in 1774, and thence by descent. There are two legends as to how the glove came into the family. The first suggests that the glove was left at Oughtershaw Hall, Shipton, Yorkshire, when Charles I visited there. The second is that the glove was used to wrap the garter badge that was presented to either John Hampden or Captain Woodd on the day of King Charles I's execution. The garter badge is still retained within another branch of the Woodd family. The glove is similar in size to a pair of buff leather gloves believed to have belonged to King Charles, formerly in the author W.B. Redfern's collection, and acquired by the Worshipful Company of Glovers in 2003. These gloves are 34cm long and the lining is marked in ink 'gloves of King Charles I, W.B. Redfern's collection'. They are also illustrated in 'Royal and Historic Gloves and Shoes' by W. B. Redfern (published by Methuen, 1904 p.33). The Museum of London has a pair of embroidered white kid gloves also purported to have belonged to the King which are 33cm long. Portraits of the King painted in the 1630s by Daniel Mytens and Van Dyck show him with quite plain buff leather gloves rather than lavishly embroidered examples. In the 1630s and 40s the King preferred plainer, more discreet gloves with bands of simple embroidery and fringing as reflected by household accounts of 1633-5. Between September 1633 and September 1634 he paid £199 1 shilling to Joseph Atkinson, a sum which covered sword hangers, girdles etc. but also covered '37 dozen and 3 pairs of upper and under gloves; 2 dozen pairs of thick stags leather gloves with gold and silver fringes; 2 pairs of gloves trimmed with black tops for mourning…' These descriptions are of gloves which were much plainer than would have been expected ten years earlier. Fringed tops are frequently referenced in these orders and describe the simpler gauntlet gloves of the 1630s on which this decoration was a usual feature. During the years 1633-5 the King also bought '4 dozen of right handed gloves to shoote in…', '8 dozen pairs of Kidd leather gloves', but only '1 pair of rich embroidered gloves'.

Rust spots to underside of gauntlet and 1cm diam stain under the thumb area. Upper side of the gauntlet has three faint bleach marks in the leather and a few more rust spots to the fingers. The gold embroidery is worn and the fringing is tarnished. Lacking the ribbon tabs from the underside of the gauntlets. The top stitching has come undone at the base of the fingers and at the base and vertical seam on the thumb. The gauntlet is open on the lower edge right down to the tip of the little finger.