A French school student’s manuscript map of France, dated 1867.

Title: Carte de France / 1867: manuscript map in black ink on paper, with the Départements outlined in blue wash, 415 x 580 mm (sheet); dissected and laid down on its original linen backing sheet, 425 x 590 mm; left- and right-hand margins with notes on the most historically interesting cities and towns; bottom margin signed by the student maker at right: ‘Marie Bocquet’, and with Prof. Carré of the Cours de l’abbé Gaultier’s enthusiastic comment (in French) at centre : ‘Perfectly done. Very honourable mention. Should be published!’; some minor water stains at top right corner of sheet, else extremely well preserved; on the verso is a printed label, headed ‘Cours de l’abbé Gaultier. Vacances de 1867. 49e. année. Géographie. 4e. Cl. Prof. M. Carré’, and a large pencilled ‘No. 240’, indicating that Mademoiselle Bocquet’s map was one of many submitted as part of the requirements for the geography course named after the French educational reformer Abbé Aloïsius Édouard Camille Gaultier (1745-1818), which was held in the summer holidays of 1867. As a student of the Classe de quatrième, Marie would have been about 14 years old.