The original tree of Duchesse d'Angouleme was a wilding growing in a
garden near Angers, Maine-et-Loire, France. About 1808, M. Audusson, a
nurseryman at Angers, appreciating the beauty and excellent quality of
the pear, obtained the right to propagate it. In 1812 he began selling
trees of the variety under the name of "Poire des Eparonnais." In 1820,
M. Audusson sent a basket of the fruit to the Duchesse d'Angouleme
with a request for permission to name the pear in her honor, a request
which was granted. At the exhibition of the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society held in 1830, Samuel G. Perkins showed a specimen which
measured eleven and three-tenths inches. It was the only one that grew
on the tree, and was considered to be the first fruit of this variety
produced in America. The American Pomological Society added Duchesse
d'Angouleme to its catalog-list of fruits in 1862.