The Spinning Wheel by Edwin Holgate is a 4.5 x 3.75 inch wood engraving on paper that is protected by museum glass. It was produced in 1928 and is initialled in the bottom right hand corner. The engraving depicts an old woman as she works at a spinning wheel, weaving yarn from fibres. She dons an apron, her hair pulled back in a bun as she feeds thread through the apparatus. Holgate uses pure black ink on white paper to create a clean, modernist aesthetic. His use of shape and line to create three dimensional forms is influenced by cubism and more modernist approaches to artmaking. Holgate was a master of wood engraving and his skill and precision in this medium is evident in this piece.

The Spinning Wheel was displayed at Willock and Sax Gallery in Banff as well as Winchester Galleries in Victoria before being added to the Rookleys collection.