Significant collection of 9 autograph letters by Guy-Victor Duperré (1775-1846), a French admiral, Pair de France and three times Naval Minister. The letters, all sent from Brest, are addressed to important French naval officers and ministers, including: Cristophe, Comte de Chabrol de Crouzol; Jean Guillaume, Baron Hyde de Neuville (1776-1857) and "Mon Cher Amiral", most likely Laurent Jean François Truguet (1752-1839). The letters were written from 22 February 1819 to 18 June 1829 (6 of them in 1828). They concern political and maritime issues and events related to Duperré's naval service.
From 1812 to 1814, Duperré commanded the French and Italian naval forces. In 1827, he was appointed Préfet maritime of Brest and inspector of the 5th arrondissement militaire. On 5 February 1830, eight months after the last letter in the present collection, King Charles X appointed him commander of the fleet of the expeditionary forces that carried out the 1830 invasion of Algiers.
Seven of the nine letters are written in Duperré's informal running script. One appears to have been written for him, perhaps by dictation, but he added a nine-line postscript in his usual running hand below his signature. One to the minister of the marine is carefully and neatly written in a formal hand, with the lines perfectly horizontal (the lines of Duperré's running script slope upward across the page), but that may be his own formal hand, used only when the occasion demands.
Accompanying the letters is a lithographic portrait of Duperré, drawn on stone and dated 1842 by the lithographic artist Louis-Joseph Ghémar (Lannoy, France 1819-Brussels 1873), better known for his later work (from 1855) as a photographer in Antwerp and Brussels and court photographer to the King of Belgium.
Most of the letters were formerly folded, probably for sending in envelopes. In good condition. For Duperré: F. Chassériau, Vie de l'Amiral Duperré (1848); for Ghémar: Louis Ghemar (1819-1873): photographe du roi (1992).