It came about with the invention of dust during the Victorian Era in England.
To be more precise, dust was not actually invented during the Reign of Queen Victoria but that was during that time period when it was first noticed by males and then only because of the invention of the eyeglasses . Prior to that dust was the exclusive property of the dominion of the female because, as the distinguished scholar and author Dave Barry is quoted as saying in his abstract regarding Male Genetic Dirt Blindness: ”.....men—because of a tragic genetic flaw—cannot see dirt until there is enough of it to support agriculture.” But once dust was discovered it created the necessity of protecting ones possessions and thus dust covers for books, slip covers for divans and album covers for LP records.