Thus, in the last century, we see virtually every trace of the immemorial methods of glove-making vanish before the swift incursion of modern machinery. A few hand-sewn gloves alone remain to remind us of the days when the _couturières_, peasant women and girls gathered in groups in cottages on the outskirts of Grenoble, or in the _ateliers_ of the town, to sing as they sewed gloves for the nobility and the gentry of a former time. But the art has gained by the inestimable assets of fit and individuality in gloves: by the great numbers, also, in which gloves to-day are supplied, that we all may delight in wearing them. In respect to Grenoble, moreover, it should be observed that, through all these changes and commercializing influences, she has sacrificed not a whit of her invincible good taste. Against foreign competition and the paralysis which she suffered under the Jouvin patent, she had only the superiority of her product to offer—the suppleness of her skins, the elegance of their cut, the beauty of the tints artificially applied, the finish and durability of her sewing. But these were enough to keep her art alive. They still prevail—and in even higher degree—in the gloves of Grenoble makers to-day. In the evolution from artist to artisan, there is little room for regret. Already the glove-workers of France have readjusted very largely to changed conditions within the industry; while the consumer and producer alike may rejoice in the widespread accessibility of the finest gloves in the world. CHAPTER VIII. ANNONAY AND ITS INDUSTRY “In France, kid-culture is carried to perfection.... To this is due the value of the French skins, which command higher prices than any in the market.”—_William S. Beck._ No history of gloves would be complete which failed to take into account the old French town of Annonay and its celebrated industry. Annonay has been mentioned several times already in the course of these pages, when the subject of fine French skins was touched upon, and especially in connection with the difficulties which arose over the free exportation of these beautiful leathers to manufacturers outside France. At once the foundation of the glovers’ prosperity, and the source to them of hardship and bitter contention for want of proper domestic protection of the trade in skins, both Annonay and the town of Millau were famous as old-established centres of the tawing industry.