"Pensionnat des Filles de la Croix à Liège.

Manuscript on paper, in French: 44 pp., pen, ink and watercolour, heightened with gold.

Contemp. half buckram, violet paper covers (sl. us.).

Unique manuscript school atlas written by a child at the boarding school of the internationally active "Daughters of the Cross of Liège" ("Pensionnat des filles de la Croix"). Enchantingly illuminated, for a child, in a Neogothic style, it includes children's prayers, biblical, moral, historical, mythical and patriotic stories, poems a.o. texts in French, Dutch, English and German, all related to family care and the future life of a young girl as a mother. A significant part of the book deals with geography and has 16 maps: the continents Africa, a part of Asia, Europe and South America, the Holy Land, Italy, France, Belgium and 8 provinces. V. Lauwers graduated in August 1874, as mentioned in the poem "Adieu le treize aoüt 1874" and as is confirmed in the price of tuition there (joined). The "Daughters of the Cross of Liège" operated 4 schools, with a total enrollment of about 1,000 girls. Of those girls, 80% were given a free education; most likely, they were not educated at the boarding school.
Joined: Porcelain card: tuition price. (Liège, H. Dessain, s.d./handwritten: 1874). Although the danger of white lead used for porcelain cards had been demonstrated in the 1860s and hence its use disappeared around 1865, it is here still used in 1874 to publicise the tuition price.