DOBRÉE Thomas (EN)

Biographical article

Son of shipowner Pierre-Frédéric Dobrée (1757-1801) and Marie-Rose Schweighhauser (1757-1781), Thomas (I) Dobrée (1781-1828) was brought up by his grandparents in Guernsey, after the death of his mother shortly after his birth. He was introduced into the business of commerce with an apprenticeship between Guernsey, Southampton and Hamburg. In 1801, then aged 20, he moved to Nantes to take over the flourishing activities of his father. He was introduced to the wealthy Nantes bourgeoisie of shipowners, merchants and directors of shipyards. In 1812, he founded the company Thomas Dobrée et Cie, largely financed by English funds and specializing in the retrofitting of ships. The company played an important role in the revival of port activities in Nantes during the Restoration.

On April 2, 1808 in Hamburg, he married Frédérique Möller who was born in Nantes in 1786. They had a son, Jean Frédéric Thomas (1810-1895), commonly nicknamed Thomas (II) Dobrée, who would be the founder of the Musée Dobrée. Thomas (I) Dobrée diversified his commercial activities by embarking on the adventure of whaling, supporting the development of metallurgy as well as creating a felt lining process for the protection of ship hulls. He was a Conseiller Municipal and elected judge to the Tribunal de Commerce de Nantes as of 1813. It should be noted that he did not participate in the slave trade, and his abolitionist position was an exception in the world of Nantes merchants during the Restoration.

From 1818, Thomas (I) Dobrée also relaunched commercial relations with China, retrofitting his ship the Fils-De-France for a voyage to Canton. It was the first French ship to enter the port of Canton after a 25 year interruption. The ship returned to Saint-Nazaire in 1819 with an extraordinarily rich cargo. The shipment from China included 380 tons of green and brown teas, 45,000 pieces of nankeen cotton, 14.5 tons of Chinese cinnamon, 6 cases of unbleached nankeen silk, 9 cases of Indian ink, 2,200 fans made of ivory, bone, sandalwood or tortoiseshell, as well as rhubarb, dyes, flowers, ostrich feathers, six boxes of women's hair, as well as paintings cited as "tout à fait chinois” (AM Nantes, 2 -A-115).

In 1824, Dobrée and his partner Dubois-Viollette chartered the Aimable Créole for China for a two-year journey (1824-1826). The instructions were specific concerning the return cargo.

In 1826, the Fils-de-France left for Canton with an American supercargo named Potts. The latter returned to France in 1827 with 9,805 cases of tea, cinnamon, 470 cases of Chinese paper, not to mention orpiment, rattan, bamboo and cane as well as various Chinese articles ... After ten years with six trips including two to China (1818 and 1826), the Fils-de-France was sold on August 1, 1829 and then dismantled. It was long considered the most perfect type of long-haul ships destined for trade with China.

Thomas (I) Dobrée died in Nantes on December 15, 1828. The trips he initiated to China are both epitomic with the voyages undertook during the Ancien Régime, and that of a metamorphosis of Nantes society, with its new focus on the Orient.

The collection

Even if these exchanges with China were above all commercial, Thomas (I) Dobrée also took advantage of the crossings to order Chinese art objects, intended both for sale and to satisfy his personal taste. Most of these objects later joined the collections of the museum founded by his son. There are even examples of porcelain, tea canisters and fans made from Thomas's (I° own drawings. Some of these objects bear the name of the Fils-de-France or the coat of arms of the Dobrée family with their motto “Fais que tu dois, advienne au pourra” (Do what you must, come what may). These private commissions reveal Dobrée's taste for Chinese civilization, even though he never traveled to the Far East.