The Mayhem Surrounding Marghab

Marghab patterns clockwise from top left: Carrots & Peas, Under the Sea,
 Jacaranda Tree, Knight, Mallard

If you focus any of your time collecting/searching for vintage linens, you most probably know the name of Marghab... You may not know the intricate details of the history of this most coveted name - but you know it represents quality. Quite simply it is the finest quality embroidery out there, rivaled only by firms like D. Porthault's with their character beauvais stitch. When Marghab pieces are set alongside pieces not bearing this royal linen provenance, it is quite evident even to an untrained eye that the Marghab is hands-down superior... thus why it is so coveted amongst collectors and dealers.

Marghab linens were produced by Vera Marghab in the mid-1900s. Vera sourced the linen upon which her embroidery would come to fame from the finest Irish mills. She then went to the global hotspot of embroidery at that time: Madeira, Portugal. Here, on this island, only the most skilled embroideresses would have the opportunity to work on Marghab's patterns. They were paid by the stitch - and on each piece of Marghab's work there are thousands. Marghab embroidery is absolutely elegant in every aspect, and the colors used and expertise of the embroidery work leave little room for comparison; it is simply the best of the best.

So... people get a little crazy around Marghab. It is, if you will, what every linen/textile collector or dealer hopes - no, dreams - to uncover on a day of searching, of scouring. "Perhaps here, now, I will uncover a set of Marghab" one's mind plays as one enters some sort of sale... And if, IF, one ACTUALLY does see even a tiny fragment of one of Marghab's patterns peeking out from underneath a pile of stuff - well, suffice it to say that the rush felt is probably akin to what some sort of drug will create. If there are others around you who might also see that tiny fragment... well, then, a bit of subdued mayhem erupts. Civil mayhem, of course, as we are talking linens here. But everyone gets fired up about this - and everyone wants to be the one who walks away with the prize.

I will admit here that I am a complete and total linen addict, as I have said before (and I am not ashamed of this, mind you). I know Marghab patterns, as you may as well, and I know when I see them. So when I tell you this story of how completely and utterly pathetic I have become in regards to "getting" these linens, of being the one who walks away with the prize, if something similiar has also happened to you - you will absolutely laugh. And if it hasn't happened to you, just wait. It will. When you see these linens which command premium prices priced at pennies on the dollar - you will enter the state of Marghab Mayhem.

Tomorrow I tell my story. Stay tuned!