Domestic textile industry. Historical artwork of a domestic interior in County Down, Ireland, where four women are engaged in spinning, reeling yarn with the clock reel, and boiling yarn. The linen industry was Ireland's most important manufacturing industry during the eighteenth century. Success was due to the household system, which saw men, women and children producing linen cloth from their own home-grown flax. This artwork is by William Hincks who between 1782 and 1783 made twelve engravings illustrating the process. This engraving was first published in 1782.