Today the name Pécs Gloves may be used by manufacturers who use old, traditional technologies, and work with reliable, checked suppliers in a clean economic environment. Pécs Gloves as an umbrella brand was granted the Hungarian Product trademark.

About glove-making in Pécs

The leather producing and processing workshops were built in the valley of Tettye Stream in Pécs, which is where Turkish curriers worked during the Ottoman occupation. The famously soft and fine leather produced by local craftsmen attracted many leather industry artisans to Pécs, creating entire dynasties of curries.

In 1762, Péter Ranolder arrived and settled in the city, bringing a new profession with him: glove making. The founder of industrialized glove-making in Pécs was János Hamerli. He was both a currier and a glove maker. He worked for Austrian and Czech master craftsmen, then in 1861, at 21 years of age, he was given the licence to start his own glove manufacture. His gloves made of outstandingly fine leather could compete with German and French gloves in the golden age of glove making. His sons built a leather and glove manufacture in the early 1900s meeting all the standards of the era. The fashionable gloves made in Hamerli’s manufacture brought recognition and fame for the company and the city of Pécs.

The first crisis of the company’s history came with the Second World War. After that, the factory did not have time to rebuild itself, as it was nationalized in 1948. The Pécs Glove Factory managed to maintain its professional culture and keep up its quality standards in the following 30 years as well, with an amazing growth induced by socialist mass production. It had its heyday during the ‘80s, employing over 3000 workers and producing over 3 million pairs of gloves every year. After the change of the political system in ‘89, the factory lost its competitiveness and was closed after several failed attempts to save it. During the decline of the factory, many smaller businesses, manufactories were established, building on the local professional culture, reacting flexibly to market changes.

1861 SHOW MANUFACTORY

“where gloves are born”

The 1861 Show Manufactory located in Zsolnay Quarter guides us through the process of glove making, having excellently trained professionals show us every stage of traditional manual glove-making step by step. Seeing the steps of cutting, pressing, numbering, precision selection and setting of materials, decoration, the presentation of different sewing techniques, lining, shaping, polishing, ironing, quality control and packaging, visitors can witness as “a perfect pair of gloves” is born.

The main speciality of the 1861 Glove Manufactory’s products is that they are tailored by hand, which is only done in a very few places in the world today. This technology requires many years of experience and it is not cheap either, but the outstanding quality of the resulting product is worth the effort.

Making use of their decades of professional experience, the glove tailors working at the company can extract the material from the leather so that its high quality is preserved during the entire work process, thanks to which the gloves produced this way fit perfectly, creating a harmony of human hands and the gloves worn by them. A pair made in the Far East could not do the same, as materials lose their natural advantages during mass production.

Their leather gloves are made by hand in Pécs, designed by Hungarian artists, and the materials used represent the highest quality available in the world. The glove makers of Pécs never doubted that “a perfect pair of gloves can only be made by human hands”. Based on this principle, their collections are the result of a unique system of experiences and professional expertise. By the time they are done, every single pair of gloves went through the skilled hands of at least fifteen craftsmen.

“bringing the Hamerli history alive”

At the 1861 Glove History Exhibition visitors can learn about the beginning of the glovemaker profession, and the history of the Hamerli and Hunor Glove Manufactures.

The exhibition uses interactive tools to present the key moments, personalities and locations of glove-making in Pécs. They can learn about the history of the development of the glove industry in Pécs, and discover how the glove factory changed the urban landscape: where its manufacturing units, offices and storages were built.

After that, the old and new tools of glove-making are presented, as well as the changes in production in various periods of the factory’s history. The factory owners, namely members of the Hamerli family, who did so much for the industrial development of Pécs, are also introduced.

And the factory’s foreign business connections reflect well the international significance of glove-making in Pécs. The focus of the exhibition is of course on gloves from beginning to end—besides the glove-making process, accessories of glove-wearing, old and contemporary fashion gloves, gloves of famous people and some special pieces are displayed too.