Table belonging to the Brontë sisters returns to the family home

After a long absence, the table on which Charlotte Brontë wrote Jane Eyre has been brought back to the family home of in Haworth, Yorkshire

Bronte-dining-table
The Brontë’s dining table. Credit: Brontë Society

A mahogany drop-leaf table belonging to the Brontë family and written on by the Brontë sisters themselves, has been returned to its original home, having been sold in 1861.

The table features ink blots, a large candle burn and a letter E carved into its surface and was said to be a “most evocative” 19th Century literary artefact by the Brontë Society at Haworth.

Bronte-dining-table[1]
The Brontë’s dining table. Credit: Brontë Society

Following the death of Patrick Brontë in 1861, the table was sold along with other household effects from the Brontë Parsonage but has been bought back thanks to a grant of £580,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF).

Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Haworth Parsonage, said “It is one of the most important literary artefacts of the 19th Century.”

The table was where the Brontë children once gathered to write their stories, poems, and novels, the society said. It featured in an 1837 diary sketch by Emily, showing herself and her other sister Anne writing.

Emily's sketch of table[1]
Emily’s sketch of the table. Credit: Brontë Society

Beginning to write at an early age, the Brontë sisters went on to become esteemed 19th novelists and one of the world’s most famous literary families. Among their many classics were Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

The table was previously loaned to the Brontë Parsonage Museum for a short period in 1997, to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and will now be on public display in the parsonage’s dining room from February.

 

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