Ernest MOUCHEZ (1821-1892) admiral and astronomer. 3 original drawings (1845-1847), and 52 letters to him, 1836-1845. Three drawings made during a trip to the West Indies, and family correspondence of the young sailor. The young Mouchez was then second in command on board the ship Le Cassard, a 20-gun brig built in Lorient in 1830 and launched in 1832; incorporated into the naval division of the West Indies, he left Brest on May 9, 1845 to go to Guyana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Venezuela, Colombia and Haiti. The return to Brest took place on July 4, 1847. The drawings are executed in black pencil, on paper (about 16 x 21 cm each). - Mr. Huard, ensign. The young naval officer, in profile, is sitting on a chair, smoking a cigarette. An ensign, Huart sailed, with Mouchez, on the Cassard. - Aft forecastle of the Cassard, with three cannons. - Nature study; a man sitting on a small brick building, wearing a hat, smoking and holding a book or a sketchbook on his lap; and two sheep. Family correspondence: 52 letters, mostly L.A.S., addressed to Mouchez by his family or close friends, plus 7 letters addressed to his family, for a total of 59 letters. Paris, Chatou, Versailles, Madrid, etc., 1836-1845, in-8 or in-4 (165 p.). It begins in February 1836, when Mouchez was a student at the royal college of Versailles (present-day Lycée Hoche), and ends in April 1845, shortly before his departure for the Antilles. The letters relate to his studies, notably aboard the Orion, in Brest, to his first navigations (South America, Far East), and to events in the family. The letters are written by his father Jacques-Barthélémy (24, Paris and Chatou 1836-1842; plus 2 letters to the Transons), his mother Louise-Cécile née Bazin (7, Paris and Chatou 1837-1843), his half-sister Sophie Finat (daughter of J.-B. Mouchez; 15 l., from Toulouse, Montauban and Paris 1837-1839), his uncle Abel Transon (3, Versailles 1836-1845), or by friends and fellow students (8, Versailles, Brest, Gorée, Batavia, 1838-1844, notably by Edmond Paulin Dubois and Léon Mabon de Beaulieu), Beautiful correspondence, rich in information on Mouchez and his family. Provenance : archives of the Mouchez family.