Charles Ricketts designed several pairs of gloves.
The May Morris Gloves
The best-known is the pair of ecclesiastical gloves that was embroidered by May Morris, and bequeathed to the V&A in 1939.
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| Pair of ecclesiastical gloves, linen embroidered in coloured silks, designed by Charles Ricketts, made by May Morris, Britain, c. 1899 [V&A, London, accession number T.71&A-1939] |
They are sometimes called the 'Easter' or the 'Bishop's' gloves (or 'Episcopal gloves'), and executed in linen, with yellow silk braid and seed pearls, and with silk embroidery in shades of yellow, green, red and pink. There are three ears of corn rising from a leaf which twines round the stalks (see the exhibition catalogue Victorian Church Art, 1971, page 158).
At the time they were dated c. 1907 (perhaps because they were first illustrated in The Art Journal in that year); the V&A database now has: c. 1899. They were exhibited at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition in November 1899.
The V&A mentions that the gloves are worked 'in chain stitch, satin stitch, stem stitch, speckling, herringbone stitch, back stitch and couching', and they measure (when flat): 36 cm by 16,7 cm by 0,7 cm. (accession number T.71&A-1939).
Two Other Pairs of Gloves
During the commemorative exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art, two years after Ricketts had died, three different pairs of gloves were on display. One was May Morris's, the other two were lent by his friends, Thomas Sturge Moore and Thomas Lowinsky.
A pair of Christening gloves, also embroidered by May Morris, came from Thomas and Marie Sturge Moore, and must have been designed by Ricketts in 1905 when Daniel was born (Ricketts became godfather to the first-born).
Such a pair of Christening gloves is illustrated in William Morris. Art and Kelmscott, edited by Linda Parry (1996, page 63): said to be in the V&A collection, these depict butterflies and blossom sprigs. Datewise (c. '1905-6') they fit the Sturge Moore connection.
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| Christening gloves, designed by Charles Ricketts and executed by May Morris, c.1905-6 [V&A] |
A third pair of gloves, also Christening gloves, came from Thomas and Ruth Lowinsky's collection. If these gloves were designed by Ricketts for the christening of one of their (four) children, they may have been made in 1920 (first daughter), 1923 (first son), 1925 (second daughter) or 1929 (second son).
The whereabouts of the last set of gloves is unknown to me.