THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 7, 1996 TAG: 9602070033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
PETER AND Betsy Agelasto have cooked up a storied table setting for ``The Artful Setting,'' a fund-raiser for The Chrysler Museum of Art taking place this weekend.
Not that it's such a tall table. Rather, their table is rich in tales about the couple's ancestors.
The Agelastos are among 36 individuals and design professionals who have concocted splendid and unusual table settings for the event, which also features lectures on collecting, design and entertaining.
From a Persian wedding cloth given to his great-grandparents for their 1865 wedding to an 1870s Indian paisley shawl, the Agelastos' table will be a highly personal affair.
``Textiles are in our blood,'' said Peter Agelasto, who explained that his family has been in the textile business for centuries.
The Virginia Beach lawyer estimated he and his wife spent more than 100 hours creating their ``tablescape,'' which displays late 19th and early 20th textiles, costumes, porcelain and silver from the family stash.
A special feature of their dramatic setting is two old family dresses - full-length gowns dripping in lace. The couple wanted to animate their table with the costumes, but this required that they find the right sort of slips, accessories and mannequins. Plus, they had to search for a hairdresser capable of setting wigs with Gibson girl-type hair styles.
Then the period for their family china and silver had to be determined, to ensure that everything on the table was compatible.
The details seemed endless. ``You have no idea,'' Peter Agelasto said. ``It just goes on and on.''
The items on and around the Agelastos' table lured scholars from Colonial Williamsburg, Richmond's Valentine Museum and The Chrysler Museum.
``It's very unusual that three big museums would be collaborating like this,'' said Loreen Finkelstein, Colonial Williamsburg's textile conservator.
Besides helping to date the silver and porcelain items, the Chrysler's decorative arts curator, Mark Clark, guided the Agelastos to the appropriate out-of-town experts.
The costumes were of special interest.
Calling them ``costumes'' seemed odd to Agelasto, who said, ``To me, they've always been old family clothes.''
The dresses had been stored in a trunk for probably 50 years. He's not sure who first owned them. ``It's hard to say, since they don't have name tags,'' he said. ``They were in a box that said `Mrs. A's clothes.' And, since they can't talk, we can only speculate.''
The dresses are similar in style and design - floor-length lace gowns with high necks, trains and three-quarter sleeves. One is black; the other is white.
Agelasto had guessed that the dresses might date from the middle to late 19th century. The Valentine Museum costume and textiles curator, Colleen Callahan, determined the dresses were later than that.
The high Edwardian collars and A-line skirts suggested the dresses were circa 1900. The black dress had a store label sewn inside at the waist. It read: Ames, Brownley & Hornthal: Norfolk, VA.
None involved, including the Agelastos, had heard of the shop. Yet the label inevitably confirmed Callahan's judgment.
A librarian at Norfolk's Kirn Memorial Library checked through old city directories and found that such a store operated at various locations on Granby Street from 1899 until about 1915. The store was called Ames & Brownley from its establishment in 1898 until 1899, when Norfolk businessman Herman Hornthal got involved. When Hornthal left, it was again called Ames & Brownley - until it closed its doors in 1973.
Dresses with labels from Ames, Brownley & Hornthal apparently are rare.
Old hats and outfits with the Ames & Brownley label show up fairly often on the racks at Echoes of Time, a vintage clothing shop in Virginia Beach, said owner Evie Myatt. But early pieces from Ames, Brownley & Hornthal are rarely seen. ``I'm sure that we've had some'' with that label, Myatt said, ``but it's not that often.''
Callahan also loaned the Agelastos the appropriate mannequins, accessories and underslips from the storehouse of the Valentine, which boasts a strong costume collection.
Finkelstein's interest was in preservation. She ensured that the dresses were displayed, stored and transported in ways that would preserve the fragile, aged fabric.
What does she get out of it? ``I'm putting together a book on textiles conservation,'' she said.
Once published, her co-authored text will be the only costume conservation book on the market, Finkelstein said. She's planning to use the Agelasto dresses for a chapter on exhibiting costumes.
So the Agelastos' 100 hours will not merely vanish like a petit four after this weekend's benefit. The setting will be immortalized in ``Consideration for the Care of Historic Costumes: A Study of Condition as It Relates to Practical Conservation Treatment Techniques.''
The Agelastos, it can then be said, did it by the book. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Loreen Finkelstein, left, textiles conservator for Colonial
Williamsburg, and aide Tami Carsillo put finishing touches on Peter
and Betsy Agelasto's display of historic clothing.
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