The Secret History of a Royal Table
Duncan Virostko, Museum Assistant
Tilt Top Table, 1834, in situ at Dunham Tavern.
In the parlor room of Dunham Tavern, a tilt top table of a type common for the 1830s period holds a royal secret. Thanks to the power of modern translation technology, it can now be revealed.
The table hasn't been overlooked by visitors and staff: the beautifully hand painted bird, resplendent in reds and yellows, painted on its top is especially striking when folded. One cannot help but be drawn to it.
But it’s true that until recently its secret history has not been fully appreciated. The reason for this has been a language barrier. There is an inscription on a brass plate on the folding mechanism of the table, but it is written in French, with occasional words in Portuguese.
Now I must confess that I neither read nor speak these two languages. I have a smattering of Japanese, some three-quarters-forgotten Spanish, and the occasional piece of vocabulary from other languages about me at any given time, but that is all. Much the same, evidently, is true of my predecessors. Fortunately, I have access to the power of modern translation software they did not, so a useful translation can now be provided.
Inscription on plate on top of folding mechanism, Tilt Top Table, 1834.
The original inscription reads:
“Peint et Donne par San Allesse L’Infante Donna Anna de Jesus a Milady William Russel A Lisbonne Le 1er Janvier 1834”
In English, that’s roughly:
“Painted & Given by Her Highness the Infanta Dona Anna de Jesus to Milady William Russel in Lisbon January 1st, 1834”.
But what does that all mean? My research reveals that this table is the product of diplomatic relations between Britain and Portugal in the 19th century. The Infanta in question was, Ana de Jesus Maria of Barganza, a Portugese noble. She had briefly lived in exile in Britain during a period of unrest in Portugal, and in 1834 had recently regained the throne. William Russel was the 8th Duke of Bedford, a British Member of Parliament. This table was supposedly a gift to his wife, by the date a New Years gift.
Infanta Ana de Jesus of Barganza (1806-1857), Portugal, ca. 1830
The inscription is in French: the shadow of Napoleon’s continental empire was still long and French was the lingua franca of Europe. It's use by Portuguese nobility is the result of Portugal being occupied by the French and Spanish during the preceding decades of the Napoleonic Wars. In fact, this Franco-Spanish occupation of Portugal was what precipitated the Peninsular Wars. This was the conflict in which the famous British General the Duke of Wellington won his fame before defeating Napoleon. The British military involvement in Portugal thus went on to to establish a close link between the British and Portuguese aristocracy diplomatically.
William Russel, 8th Duke of Bedford (1809-1872)
Interestingly, it appears that the Duke never in fact married. In 1832, it was reported that Russel would marry a Lavinia Harcourt, who may have been the recipient of the table some two years later. Russel suffered from chronically poor health, and mental health issues, eventually dying a recluse in his own home in May 1872. In spite of pressure from his family to marry, he seems to have felt his own poor health precluded such arrangements, writing in 1841: “‘I shrink almost with a feeling of horror of uniting a young girl full of life to a semi-corpse’.”.
Rather, it appears he may have had an brief affair with the Infanta, as according to his Uncle Lord George William, he:
“was disposed to admire a pretty little Spanish lady but probably did not kindle so quickly as Spanish eyes desire ... so she gave the preference to young L. Bonaparte, whom the indignant husband caught and cuffed and kicked downstairs, and has packed off his poor little frail wife to be shut up in a convent in Spain for life. Thus has tragically ended the little innocent amour, of which Russell might have been the hero; still it is as well not to be kicked by an enraged Don.” .
L. Bonaparte here refers to Louis Bonaparte, later Napoleon the Third of France, who in this period was also staying in England and was well known for his numerous affairs.
Ana de Jesus Maria was the first Portuguese noblewoman to have married a commoner, and the result was a scandalous at the time marriage in Portugal even though she was not in line for the throne. She and her husband subsequently traveled Europe extensively during their exile, including a lengthy stay in Brittan. Their travels resulted not only in the birth of several children, but also eventually a de-facto separation in their marriage. An affair, therefore, is not as implausible as it sounds.
Whatever the case may be, the ties between the Portuguese and English nobility are the key to understanding whatever relationship William Russel and Ana de Jesus Maria may have had, which resulted in the creation of this unique tilt top table.
So how does an Ohio house museum end up with a side table that, if the inscription is to be believed, is the artwork of Portuguese royalty? Firstly, the piece is of the highest quality and beauty. It was a treasured piece, well taken care of, and so survived the ages. It's beauty eventually attracted Mrs. Betsey Bourne Tracy, who had it in her personal collection and donated it to the museum in 1987.
A well educated woman, Mrs. Tracy may have been able to read the French inscription, and recognized the table's royal provenance and historical significance. Yet, there may also be a clue in the name William Russel itself. There was also a prominent early Representative to Congress from Ohio of the same name and age as the 8th Duke of Bedford, who was also active in the 1830s. A simple case of mistaken identity might have taken place. No doubt Mrs. Tracy and Dunham Tavern would have preferred the name to relate to an Ohio statesman rather than an English Duke. And without having easy access of the modern researcher to the minutiae of 19th century European politics, it was only natural to come to the wrong conclusion about which William Russel the inscription referred to.
Dunham Tavern's accession records only repeat the inscription, without translation. This implies that whilst Mrs. Tracy may have been aware of its meaning in French, the staff at Dunham Tavern were not, and did not recognize the significance of the inscription.
The Royal Table, the possible product of a love affair?
And so, the true story of our Royal side-table has remained untold, until now. In the twenty-first century, the barriers of language are being broken down by technology, and in the process we are learning more about our past. We no longer need to be the product of expensive educational programs, like Mrs. Betsey Bourne Tracy, to understand what people around the world as saying. This has been an unrivaled improvement in human communication and knowledge yet it is all to easy to take for granted. But translation software is but the first step towards a deeper understanding for scholars.
Scholars existing in the Anglosphere still suffer from constraints and biases due to the limited sources available to them. In plain English, that means they don't know what other historians around the world are learning unless it's translated into English, and that can be a detriment to their understanding of history. Nowadays, there are many different ways to approach learning a new language, or improving your skills in one you already know. One of my own goals is to improve my skills in Japanese, though I'll confess to not having done much to achieve that yet. Whether you or not are a scholar, I believe that learning a language besides your native tongue is something which is well worth the effort, for all the new experiences and knowledge it grants one access to. Contact with other people, with different viewpoints, cultures, and experiences can change and improve your worldview. So why not give it a try?
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanta_Ana_de_Jesus_Maria_of_Braganza
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Russell,_8th_Duke_of_Bedford
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/russell-william-1809-1872
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_III
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Russell_(Ohio_politician)