A leather glove painted with a map of London landmarks, it was designed to help fashionable ladies find their way to and from the Great Exhibition held in London’s Hyde Park in 1851.
As far as we know, the glove was never produced commercially. This example survives because its creator, George Shove, chose to protect his design by registering it with the government.
This involved depositing a “representation”, which was a sample, a drawing or a photograph of the design, at the Office of the Registrar of Designs.
What a wonderful find! I love how it’s printed over the divisions in the fingers.