Trénor. An exhibition of a bourgeois family

Trenor. An exhibition of a bourgeois family

Thesaurus exhibition room - La Nau

26 May 2009 –27 September 2009

From Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 to 13.30 and from 16 to 20 h.

Sunday, from 10 to 14 h.

Colección Familia Trenor.

Organised and produced by  Department for Culture, Universitat de València

In cooperation with València Council

Curators :

Justo Serna, Professor of Contemporary History,  Universitat de València

Anaclet Pons, Professor of Contemporary History,  Universitat de València

The Exhibition has two themes. On the one hand, the anniversary of the Valencian Regional Exhibition held in 1909. On the other, the symbolic exhumation of its main inspirer, Tomás Trénor, the member of a distinguished bourgeois family in 19^th and 20^th century Valencia, originally from Limerick (Ireland). The exhibition recreates the evolution of this business and industrial dynasty (one of the most relevant in the 1800s), 1909 being the starting point, and describes Valencia and Europe at the time. It presents both the inside and outside of the bourgeois world: their homes, companies, streets, habits, costumes, hobbies, and businesses. 

In 1909 the world of business and industry in Valencia opened up to the world. The Trenors were a source of inspiration for the event but basically they embodied the long modernisation process of Valencian society, culture, and economy. They also devised a project for 20^th century Valencia. This exhibition seeks to reconstruct the 19^th century bourgeois world and explore Valencia’s adaptation to the new industrious life and society styles. In a way, the Trenors are our local Buddenbrooks. With help from a family member, Tomás Trenor Puig, we have been able to recreate that universe with photographs, furniture, utensils, toys, original and copied documents, explanatory panels, music, and cultural and literary contextualisation. Past times will be recreated at Thesaurus room: 1909 but also the whole 19^th century. Visitors will first see the Regional Exhibition theme: The exhibition is a flashback tour, first travelling to Limerick, the dynasty’s original motherland. From Valencia to Ireland, then. And then from Europe back to Valencia. 

In addition to the research conducted by the curators, Justo Serna and Anaclet Pons, the catalogue includes works by Tomás Trénor Puig, Josep Vicent Boira, Alejandro Lillo, Amparo Ruiz and  Concha Ridaura.

Ricardo Bucelli, Retrato de Thomas Trenor Keating (1798-1858), 1847. Colección Familia Trenor.

Vicente López, Retrato de Rita de Juna y Fuster, 1805 [ca]. Colección Familia Trenor.

1. Valencian Regional Exhibition, 1909

Contemporaries saw the 1800s as a century of progress, acceleration and developments. A whole repertoire of technical novelties were made available to industry, agriculture, and even ordinary citizens. New equipment and devices were created to make life easier and more comfortable. But the key to such progress did not only lie in manufacturing but in reaching everybody, for all individuals to benefit. A material achievement that was not made widespread was a poor achievement, as it was to be validated by the market, be given a name recognising its authorship and associated to a country that could take pride of such an industrial exploit. That healthy fight –as described by 19^th century chroniclers- soon led to a great many competitions, meetings, and events of all sorts where manufacturers, inventors, technicians, scientists and even rulers came together. Not all events were equally transcendental or important.

At the beginning, the meetings were either local, regional or national. For instance, in 1845 a Public Industry Exhibition was held in Madrid, with dedicated exhibitors coming from all over Spain. It was actually an expression of needy capitalism but an event, at the end of the day. The prestige that the presentation of new products could bring along was evident to manufacturers, who took the risk to improve their companies and product markets in this way. After the meetings, the exhibitors went back home with medals and awards, to which proud reference was made in their corporate papers, leaflets, and store signs. But they also came back with contacts and contracts, as the meetings were very much like trade fairs, something that had been invented by marketers many centuries ago. But they now took on a different format: closed precincts, with previously allocated areas, and with sample collections and catalogues to guide visitors and exhibitors.

But the greatest change in the new fairs was their internationalisation in the 19^th century. That was a major shift indeed. It first happened in 1851, in London's Great Exhibition. This fabulous event was a dream come true, one that set a milestone in the history of England, a country transformed into a factory and a display cabinet of industrial progress. It was an example to follow by all those great men willing to foster similar initiatives in the future. From then onwards, the events were to be held in an adequate site such as Crystal Palace, the 1851 venue, with large facilities, to dazzle exhibitors and avid visitors. Besides, the Great Exhibition was so successful and received so many visitors that it really meant the start of organised, modern tourism. Therefore, cities were to be tidied up, streets ornamented and accommodation catered for, to welcome thousands of travellers. That success triggered the addition of other attractive features to industrial shows. One of those new features was the creation of areas for historical and cultural evocation where past scenes were recreated. This was definitely luring to visitors looking for fun and happiness in their lives.

Hermanos Trenor Palavicino en la terraza del Monasteria de San Jerónimo de Cotalba. 1855 [ca]. Colección Familia Trenor.

Familia de Ricardo Trenor Palavicino. 1880 [ca]. Colección Familia Trenor.

The city of Valencia was alien neither to the whirl of events nor to the opportunities that exhibitions meant. The Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País had often fostered competitions and awards. The authorities had even created the so-called July Fair in 1871, an event sometimes comprised of exhibitions; in 1872 an agricultural conference was held; in 1883 the first Regional Exhibition was successfully promoted. However, it was only held a few years later, in 1909. The dream came true between July 1909 and November 1910 thanks to the Ateneo Mercantil and above all its president and former mayor of the town, Tomás Trénor Palavicino. The exhibition was first regional and later national. With an area of more than 150,000 square metres, a new walkway to the Alameda --the most elegant walk in town--, about 20 impressive buildings, some small pavilions, and more than 2,000 exhibitors, its catalogue of new products praised Valencian agriculture, its productive richness and the industrial expansion generated by the new agro-industry… It included farming produce but also metalwork objects, agricultural machinery, railway materials, representatives of the fertilizer and explosive sectors or from the furniture, lighting, and leather tanning sectors, leather goods, foodstuffs, etc.

The opening took place on 22 July 1909. King Alfonso XIII and an entourage of authorities and outstanding figures attended the ceremony. Tomás Trénor clearly recalls the king's arrival: “People took the streets very early in the morning. Troops filled the city with their music in their marching to the opening site (…). The royal train arrived at the platform. A few minutes later a gun salute was heard, the army received the King in Valencia with full military honours as music played”. Numerous expressions of all sorts followed from that day to early January the following year: horse-riding competitions, athletics, cycling, stamp-collecting contests, hot-air balloons and animals shows, automobile rallies, meetings of all types, numerous conferences, etc. Valencia had prepared for a great deal of activities under the supervision of the organiser.

Tomás Trénor wrote: “Exhibitions are like receptions, banquets and balls to social life; fairs and festivities to citizenship; they show off strength, greatness and vitality”. Valencia had to join in and follow the avenue opened up in the new century, as other world events had done before -Paris, London or Barcelona in the 1800s- and keep the momentum of the regional exhibitions of Madrid (1907) and Zaragoza (1908). That mission was accomplished spectacularly, erecting not only a single building but several ones along the lines of event: trade fair, entrepreneurial pride, a city' show, and leisure for the masses. That's very much the way the exhibition was organised. But something must be added: the incarnation of what those people understood to be the Valencian region and Spain. That idea was fully expressed in the symbols and décor of the buildings, full of coats of arms and agricultural motifs.

What is left from all that? The city underwent considerable changes: improved access, remodelled streets, electricity, more hotels, restaurants and leisure facilities. Yet, the final triumph was that of architecture, with its remarkable Gothic style, a choice that made reference to a glorious past looking for bygone brilliant moments. With the Regional Exhibition, Valencian elites entered mass society, making the represented, desired and imagined virtual space their own: industry and agriculture were not exactly as shown at the Exhibition but the event actually recreated such this reality as a trade public show. Its effects still remain.

Tomás Trenor Palavicino en el Alto de los leones. Colección Familia Trenor.

Visita de S.A.R la Infanda Dª Isabel a la exposición Regional Valenciana. 1909. Archivo Gráfico de José Huguet.

2. Trénor. An exhibition of a bourgeois family 

Thomas Trenor was born in Dublin in the late 18^th century in a family of merchants. Like many of his neighbours, he emigrated to Spain. Apparently, he arrived in the Iberian Peninsula during Napoleon's War or shortly afterwards, following some of his relatives. Philip Keating-Roche had come to fight as lieutenant colonel of the 17^th lancers regiment, the so-called Light Dragoons of the British Army. He was promoted during the conflict; in fact he is known as General Roche. Among other merits, he commanded the troops that beat Marshall Suchet in Mutxamel on 23 April 1812. Another relation of his was Henry O’Shea, who was quartermaster general in the same army. After the war, both Henry and Thomas were in Spain, the former in Valencia and the latter in Cadiz, where many compatriots did business. Physical distance did not seem to separate them. Rather, their geographic choice possibly helped their common businesses as partners and correspondents. But possibly their trade was not too successful or maybe circumstances changed, as Trenor soon moved to and settled down in Valencia, maybe to be closer to his relatives. We know that, when Enrique de O’Shea moved to Madrid in 1824, Thomas took over the company previously run by Henry. A year later, in May 1825, both of them set up a joint corporation called Henrique O'Shea, Trénor y Compañía, the merchant Guy Champion also being a partner. The company focused on imports and exports, paying special attention to the British market. In fact, that very year the company was leased the rights for the importation of cod, a monopoly which had been regulated the year before.

In the 1820s Thomas Trenor finally settles down in Valencia under the umbrella of family businesses. He starts a business of his own in the raisin export market operating from the Port of Denia, closing down his business in Cadis in 1827. Two years later, on 22 July 1829, he travels to Malaga to marry Brigida Bucelli, the daughter of a family acquaintance, Pedro Fabio Bucelli. Already rooted in Valencia, he resumes and expands his businesses. In the mid 1830s, for example, he goes into partnership with a British national living in Alicante. Their company - Satchell and Trenor- trades with different goods, especially vine-related products. In 1837, he empowers Antonio María Peyrolón to manage the contract for “the steam boats that clean the Puerto del Grao". The following year he takes a great opportunity, namely the acquisition of the monastery of Sant Jeroni de Cotalva  in  Alfahuir, among other, which had been expropriated as a result of the Spanish Desamortización.

But the purchase was not the only thing he did. He made all efforts to improve the estate, resorting to all the necessary measures. On the one hand, he maintained a classic farming exploitation type of Valencia, that is, leasing the land in small plots. On the other, he introduced farming changes, dedicating part of the estate’s land -then uncultivated- to grow vines. These transformations involved other investments that would stimulate productiveness and the distribution of agricultural products, particularly raisins. Above all, his investment went to this productive activity, as he also distributed the products, especially as contacts had been made in the areas of Safor and Marina.

Vista de la pasarela construida sobre el cauce del río túria. 1910 [ca]. Archivo Gráfico de José Huguet.

Entrada a la Glorieta. 1900 [ca]. Archivo Gráfico de José Huguet.

But his activities did not only concentrate on land ownership and product distribution. In the late 1820s, in 1828, his partner Guy Champion had granted power of atterney to Henry O’Shea to rent a silk factory located in Vinalesa, upon which a pact had been reached and formalised in a deed with the corporation Combey y Cía., the owner and manager until then, as it had been evicted by the Commerce Court. Years later, in 1842, Thomas Trenor ended up buying it but an acquisition agreement was likely to have been reached earlier. Perhaps he had even bought part of it already. In this way, the reinvestment of the profit made in his business activities went to both agriculture and industry, in this case the traditional silk manufacturing sector. The silk factory in Vinalesa became one of the facilities with a high level of innovation, as revealed by news at the time. Among existing textile factories, three spinning mills were said to undergo considerable transformations, basically tanks to the application of steam. One of the three was Trenor’s mill who “runs the site of Vinalesa on behalf of an English company”.

Two initiates put forward later rounded up this trend. In 1845 he bid in an auction to buy a house at Calle Trinquete Caballeros in which he had lived as a tenant. It was to become his home in the coming years. In 1847 he starts a new business, Peruvian guano, thanks to the English company Antony Gibbs & Sons, which had been leased part of the monopoly by the Republic of Peru. All that led to the incorporation in 1854 of the company Trenor y Cía, initially in partnership with his nephew Guillermo Mathews and, since 1858 with his eldest sons. His five children were born between 1830 and 1840: Federico, born in March in 1830; Enrique, in July 1832; Tomás, in August 1835; Elena, in October 1837; and Ricardo, in July 1840.  In 1858, his two eldest sons were 28 and 26 years old, respectively. They were the only ones who could work with their father, as they were already over the age of consent, 25 at the time, while Tomás had enrolled at the military academy of engineers and Ricardo was still too young.

Tomás Trenor died soon after setting up the company with his sons, in September 1858, while staying at Panticosa spa. Upon his death, his heirs made an inventory of his assets. Apart from the already mentioned investments, it included shares in several large companies such as the railway lines Madrid-Zaragoza-Alicante and Almansa-Valencia-Tarragona, financial firms like Crédito Mobiliario Español, Valenciana de  Seguros Marítimos or Crédito Valenciano, and the partial ownership of different boats. Yet, the family decided not to split the inheritance they were legally entitled to. The eldest brothers (Enrique and Federico) continued managing the company and the inheritance, paying their mother and the other children 5% yearly interest each based on their corresponding divisible amount. Enrique and Federico would give their brothers and sister their inheritance as they became emancipated. In 1861, Federico married the daughter of the Marquis of Misarol, Maria de la Concepción Palavicino Ibarrola. The youngest brothers got married too: Tomás married his sister in law, Desamparados, in 1862 and Ricardo married Josefa in 1864, while Federico got married to Julia Montesinos Sacristán in 1860 and Elena to Juan I. de Llano White in 1862.

Despite these marriages and the many children they all had, the family company continued operating throughout the century, doing the usual business and other activities. Among such activities is the Colonial Refinery of Badalona, which manufactured sugar lumps. The famous Marquis of Comillas would go into partnership in this company later on. Another example is the sulphuric acid and fertilizer factory of El Grau, one of the first in Spain and a pioneer in phosphate solubilisation using this acid. By then, at the beginning of the century, some of the grandchildren were already partners in the company, like Tomás Trenor Palavicino. Born in 1864, he was named after the dynasty’s founder, like his father. He shared something else with his father: he enrolled at the Military School of Artillery in 1881. He was a member of parliament from the conservative party, representing the constituencies of Albaida and Vinaròs, in 1903 and 1907, but most importantly he was the promoter of the 1909 Regional Exhibition of Valencia, an initiative that awarded him the title of Marqués de Turia and caused him considerable economic pain too, as he had to meet a part of the deficit of the event. Married to Margarita de Azcárraga, the daughter of the famous military and politician Marcelo Azcárraga, the Marqués de Turia died in Madrid in March 1913.

Hermanos Tomás y Federico Trenor Bucelli, 1870 [ca]. Colección Familia Trenor.