1825 to 1865

The years 1825–1865 brought remarkable changes to printed cotton fabrics. This was an era of beautiful appliqué quilts, bold florals, large-scale vines and squiggles, ombré stripes, and an ever-expanding world of color. Advances in dye chemistry and textile printing gave fabric designers exciting new possibilities, creating prints that could be both wonderfully sophisticated and surprisingly vibrant.

One of the distinctive looks of the early part of this period is the use of soft pastel colors. Pinks, yellows, delicate blues, greens, and other light, clear shades are particularly associated with fabrics from around 1830. One especially charming combination is pink with yellow, which appears again and again in surviving textiles from the period.

Margo’s understanding of these fabrics comes not only from years of research, but also from studying the original textiles themselves. She owns nine antique fabric sample books. Her oldest is an extraordinary French dress-goods sample book dating to approximately 1830. There are no names or dates written inside—only the number 4 on its cover.

Textile historian Dr. Virginia Gunn helped date the book in part by examining its remarkable abundance of pastel prints. Throughout its pages are wonderful examples of the colors and designs fashionable during this period, including numerous pinks combined with yellow.

That antique sample book has become an important source of inspiration for Margo’s reproduction fabrics, including her Dargate Livre Pinks, which capture the complex colors and character found in these nearly 200-year-old textiles.