Adam's Works on Paper ONILNE Auction Ending August 10th 2020

32 Bidding ends 10am Monday 10 th August 89 40192-136 89 AFTER WILLIAM HINCKS (18TH CENTURY) ‘The Linen Industry’ A set of twelve sepia printed aquatints, each 58.5 x 52cm Published as the Act directs by R. Pollard, Spitalfields, London, June 20, 1791. Exceedingly rare. Each plate is dedicated to members of the Landed Gentry and Aristocracy. The twelve plates: I. View taken near Scarva in the County of Downe representing Ploughing, Sowing the Flax Seed and Harrowing; II. View taken near Hillsborough in the County of Downe, Representing Pulling the Flax when grown, Hooking or Putting it up to Dry, Ripling or saving the Seed and Boging or burying it in Water. III. Representing taking the Flax out of the Bog when it has been lain a sufficient time to separate the Rind which is the Flax from the Stem, & strengthen it, spreading it to dry, stoving, beetling, and breaking it. IV. Representing the common Method of Beetling, Scratching and Hackling the Flax. V. Perspective View of a Scutch Mill, with the Method of Breaking the Flax. VI. Taken on the spot in the County of Downe, Representing Spinning, Reeling with the Clock Reel, and Boiling the Yarn. VII. Representing Winding, Warping with a new improved warping mill and Weaving. VIII. The Brown Linen Market at Banbridge. IX. A Complete Perspective View of all the Machinery of a Bleach Mill. X. View of a Bleach Green taken in the County of Downe. XI. Perspective View of a Lapping Room. XII. Perspective View of the Linen Hall in Dublin. William Hincks was born in Waterford, and in early life was apprenticed to a blacksmith. Self-taught as an artist, his name first appears in 1773, when he was living in York Street, Dublin, and was an exhibitor of portraits in crayons at the Society of Artists in William Street. He made similar contributions the following year; and in 1775 he sent five works in oils and five in chalks. In 1777 he exhibited six portraits, including one of “A Siberian Cat, in possession of Lady St. George. In 1780 he went to London, and one of his first works on his arrival was a series of illustrations designed for an edition of Tristram Shandy. This remarkable work by Hincks representing the process of producing linen from preparing the ground and sowing, to the arrival of the finished mate- rial for exportation at the Linen Hall in Dublin. The depiction of an agri/industrial process is unique in Irish eighteenth century literature. The series consists of twelve plates, each plate measuring approximately 42 by 35cm. The set was republished in 1791 by R. Pollard, Spafields, London. € 2,500 - 3,000 The Linen Industry in 18th Century Ireland