First edition. 2 vols. 2 tinted lithographic frontispieces, one folding, a total of 15 full page tinted lithograph illustrations, 2 hand-coloured folding maps and lithographed illustrations on India paper mounted in the text. 8vo. Publisher’s brown cloth with gilt title to spine and small gilt vignette to upper board, neatly recased with the spines laid down, the corners slightly bruised and spines worn. Some uniform browning as usual. Bookplate to upper pastedown and ffep to both volumes, occasional pencil annotations. xiii, [1 blank], 387; xi, [1 blank], 435, [1 publisher’s advertisements] pp. London, John Van Voorst, 1865.
One of the most important works on Crete.
Spratt became director of the Mediterranean Survey in 1851 and began the survey of Crete almost immediately. His ‘archaeological and ethnographical interests spurred him on produce the important Travels in Crete which contain an extremely detailed accout of the island, including an appendix describing the Cretan dialect as compared to Modern Greek, by Viscount Strangford. The interesting plates are by J. Schranz…after sketches by Spratt.’ (Blackmer 1590).
