(Click for Big)
This image of a family of Zuiderzee (a historic region of the Netherlands and now part of North Holland) is a hand-colored print from a steel engraving drawn and engraved by Rouargue Frères in 1857 in Paris.
Sunlight floods through the leaded glass window as the child plays in the background, the man concentrates on lighting his clay pipe, and the woman, keeping an eye on the artist, industriously spins flax on her flat-rim treadle wheel. All is not labor for the dear lady, however--note the glass of a little something close by on the sideboard to her left. Some things do not change. She looks like good company, doesn't she?
I like how the woman has tilted her stool forward on the front legs to reach the wheel more comfortably and how the wheel sits on a small patterned rug to keep it from skidding across the floor. I also note the simple distaff with the line flax tied in a knot at the top. Although it is tempting to put this down to a lack of accuracy on the part of the artist, I have seen a few other images of spinners with the flax tied in just this way.
