The Other Side of Elizabethan Mittens

Costumers familiar with Herbert Norris' Tudor Costume and Fashion may recall seeing the illustration below, which purports to show the palm of an Elizabethan embroidered velvet mitten. The dual lines, apparently of cording, always puzzled me. Following the two links below (I am unable to place the images directly on this page) you'll be able to see the answer. The lines that Norris depicts are actually the bound edges of a slit allowing the wearer to slip their fingers out of the mitten without taking them off all together. Marcus Gheeraerts' 1603 portrait of Henry Cary (located at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts) illustrates this beautifully. Cary wears one mitten, and the second dangles from his hand--held by the fingers of an interior glove protruding from the slit across the palm of the mittens. Interestingly, these mittens appear to be made of brown velvet, whereas the mittens held at the V&A as well as the privately held ones linked below are scarlet. It is possible Cary's gloves were red as well, with either discolored paint or the vagaries of computer monitors being responsible for them appearing brown in the portrait.

Glove illustration found on page 552 of Tudor Costume and Fashion (Dover reprint of 1938 2 volume edition). Norris' description (p. 553) implies this drawing is based on the gloves at the V&A. He makes no comment on the palm slit implied by the lines of cording across the palm.

Link 1: Elizabethan mittens

Above is a sketch of the mittens portrayed in the Gheeraets' portrait. (M. Lavrakas, 2005) Link 2: Gheeraerts' portrait of Henry Cary