Item #3903102 Bronze Medal, 'Voyage autour du Monde de la Corvette la Coquille'. DUPERREY, LOUIS XVIII.
Bronze Medal, 'Voyage autour du Monde de la Corvette la Coquille'.

Bronze Medal for Duperrey's Coquille voyage.
Bronze Medal, 'Voyage autour du Monde de la Corvette la Coquille'.

Paris: Andrieu & de Puymaurin, 1822.

Bronze medal, 51 mm; Obverse: profile portrait of Louis XVIII; Reverse: "Hémisphère Austral. Physique Astronomie. La Corvette l'Uranie Mr. Ls. de Freycinet Commandt… S.A.R.M. Le Duc d'Angoulême, Amiral de France etc…"

Bronze medal, 51 mm.

Duperrey's Coquille voyage

An excellent example of the very uncommon bronzed copper medal commemorating the first voyage of Duperrey to the Pacific. A similar example of this bronze version is held in the Rex Nan Kivell collection of the National Library of Australia.

An excellent example of the very uncommon bronzed copper medal commemorating the first voyage of Duperrey to the Pacific. A similar example of this bronze version is held in the Rex Nan Kivell collection of the National Library of Australia.

Duperrey's voyage was one of the greatest of the French grands voyages to the Pacific. The expedition set out from Toulon on 11 August 1822, with the intention of collecting scientific data and specimens, but also instructed to report on the possibility of establishing a penal colony in Western Australia. Duperrey, who was thirty-five at the start of the voyage, had been on the crew of the previous major French Pacific voyage, that of Freycinet. He had as his second-in-command Dumont d'Urville, who was to become the most experienced French commander in the Pacific. While science led the expedition, there was also an unspoken goal of discovering where France might carve out an empire in the South Pacific. His voyage was of some 73,000 miles, with major destinations including Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea.

By far the greatest contributions of the expedition were scientific, cartographic and ethnographic, and the Duperrey voyage account is a famously sumptuous production, with exquisite coloured plates.

Marquess of Milford Haven, 189.

Condition Report: Extremely fine.

Price (AUD): $4,100.00

US$2,692.95   Other currencies

Ref: #3903102

Condition Report