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A web of handwoven linen being sold in the muddy street of a town in the north of Ireland, about 1880. A middleman makes a price between the Bleacher (left) and the Weaver, dark cap, on right.

Linen is the aristocrat of textiles. Strong as steel, but no less delicate than silk, its appearance is as varied and attractive as the Irish landscape. It takes devotion and skill to weave, finish and dye, but no fabric holds color so well. Warm in winter, and gloriously cool in summer, it has wonderful properties of absorption and durability.

Linen was prized in ancient Egypt and Biblical times; and today, when furnisher and fashion designers can choose from a bewildering array of synthetic materials, there are many who still insist on the ancient, natural luxury of linen.

William Clark & Sons Business Card, 1885.

"Irish linens are world-renowned, and in the manufacture of flax into linens Ireland leads all countries in both quality and quantity." Report on The Linen Industry in the U.K., 1913