FABRIC Collector parlays love of linens into business

Margie Dunn says there's nothing quite like the feel of freshly ironed sheets.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
The inflection in Margie Dunn's voice changes when the topic centers on fine fabrics.
"Feel this," she says, rubbing her hands over vintage French lace. "Isn't it so sweet? And this is a table-topper. Just look at the detail of that stitching. Can you imagine doing this by hand? This right here is Normandy lace. Can you see the lace effect?"
As if she's delivering a sales pitch, Dunn, of Harriman, Tenn., never waits for a response to a question. Instead, her hands quickly glide to the next pretty thing on a bed dressed in vintage linens.
Dunn's craziness with white lace and, later, vintage linens began some 40 years ago when she was living in Highland, Ind.
"I just fell in love, so I started collecting -- bedspreads, tablecloths, towels, doilies, handkerchiefs," she says.
Traveling to Chicago and New York at least five times a year, Dunn made sure she was in attendance at estate and auction sales, where she would unearth keepsake, museum-quality pieces.
Collecting turned into selling at antique and charity shows across the state of Tennessee and Atlanta. These days Dunn still buys from a New York antiques dealer, but she has passed the selling aspect of the business on to her daughter, Diane Dunn.
Dunn is certain that "many people probably laughed their way to the bank because, in the beginning, I didn't know the value of things."
But the school of hard knocks paid off for Dunn in the form of unequivocal knowledge. She speaks of vintage linens as though they are fine wines.
"You have to know the age, the story behind it, you have to be able to tell the fakes from the real thing by looking at the stitching, the fabric " says Dunn, whose collection consists primarily of vintage linens from the late 1800s and early to mid-1900s.
"You can't find anything like it in a store," she says. "Hand-stitched fabrics from the finest threads. Tablecloths made of fine silks."
Favorites
With hundreds of boxes of linen stored in a climate-controlled storage area, Dunn says she often comes across something she just can't bear to sell.
A telegram World War II hankie is one of the first favorites she pulls from a scrapbook of thousands of handkerchiefs. Another nonnegotiable: a 1800s bronze-colored chaise lounge cover and pillow set from France valued at $5,000.
It comes as no surprise that in her old world-style home, a main level bedroom is a sea of white tablecloths, bedspreads, towels, curtains, doilies and pillowcases outfitted on a white brass bed and white wicker furniture.
Dunn not only decorates other bedrooms in the house with freshly ironed vintage linens but she also sleeps on them.
"Putting your head on a crisp linen that has just been ironed, goodness, there is nothing like it," Dunn says of her simple indulgence.
"I have always had a fancy for old world, romantic things," she says.
Many of Dunn's clients, some overseas, share her "love of linen because they are one-of-a-kind art pieces."