Emily Chan
The leather was also examined more thoroughly. During the post-industrial era, certain tanning agents were used in leather creation. They included chromium or titanium. None of these elements were found in the leather gloves.
Instead, the main elements detected were calcium and iron, indicating that they were not from the post-industrial era. The gloves have some stains on the inside. Evidence of minor repairs suggests that they were worn but not worn often.
Meyer believes the gloves date back to the early or mid-17th century, overlapping with Shakespeare’s lifetime.
According to Meyer, gloves may have been important to Shakespeare because his father was a glove maker. They also signaled a higher social status and may have been worn as part of costumes on stage.
An 18th-century Shakespearean actor named David Garrick reportedly received the gloves from descendants of Shakespeare. They were gifted to him in 1769 to honor his work portraying Shakespeare’s characters.
Garrick passed the gloves on to the Kemble family of British-born actors. They came into the possession of Frances Kemble, an actress and abolitionist.
She gave them to Horace Howard Furness, a Shakespearean scholar. His brother, Frank Furness, designed Penn’s Fisher Fine Arts Library and the box for the gloves. H.H. Furness’s son ensured that the gloves were donated to Penn Libraries.
Among the collections, other objects said to be related to Shakespeare include a box supposedly crafted from the mulberry tree outside of his home and a vial with a piece of wood from the room where he was born. The connection between these items and the playwright also cannot be proven.
