A Ramble in Malta and Sicily, in the Autumn of 1841 ... Illustrated with Sketches taken on the Spot, and drawn on Stone by the Author
London, Smith, Elder, and Co., 1842.
Large octavo (265 × 180 mm), viii, 168, [2] (list of subscribers) pages with 2 small woodcut illustrations plus an additional ornate colour-pictorial title leaf, lithographed dedication leaf, and 11 (of 12) tinted lithographs (3 with tissue-guards). The missing plate is 'Garden of the Latomie, and Convent of the Capuchins', intended to be bound opposite page 96.
Early half morocco and marbled papered boards, spine gilt in compartments, with the title in gilt; leather rubbed and a little worn at the extremities, with the front joint beginning to crack; plates a little foxed (and a few are lightly soiled or have small light tidemarks in the blank upper margin); short edge tears to a few leaves neatly sealed; a decent copy.
Provenance: Sir Walter Crocker, with his ownership details ('W.R. Crocker, Sicily 1968 (Jan.)'). Sir Walter Russell Crocker (1902-2002) was Australian Ambassador to Italy at the time he acquired this copy. Tipped in on the front flyleaf is an autograph aerogramme from Susanne Toogood, a great-great-granddaughter of George Fife Angas. The letter, dated April 1968, was written in reply to a request from Crocker for information about the artist, but the response is an agreeably personal one, clearly in the same vein as the one being answered.
Item #109243
Sold