paul robertson, Author at Unoriginal Sins

11 Jul A TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY FINLAY TO FRED HUNTER DATED 11 JULY (1963).

Posted at 10:33h in Letters + Documents

A typed letter signed by Finlay to his friend Fred Hunter (dated July 11th [1963]) on two sheets of light typing paper - each 12.7 x 20.2cm, 1pp. There are approximately 353 words, with one holograph correction. Finlay writes: “I also enclose a catalogue Jessie [McGuffie] and I made, for the gallery Jessie was to run here; unfortunately, the nasty posh lady who owned the gallery, objected to some of the people who were invited to the opening, and there was an argument, and Jessie got sacked, whereupon the artist withdrew his paintings, so there never WAS an exhibition.” Elsewhere, Finlay thanks Hunter “for the pound… the Wild Hawthorn is certainly always glad of money”; mentions Fish-Sheet (“I hope to do it, at irregular intervals”), and informs that “Next Poth will be 8”. Other chat refers to Hunter having bought “the concretes of [sic] A D'Offay; I just hope it wasn’t a disappointment for you; it worries me”, and a promise to dig out back issues of Migrant for him that “are shut away in a teachest, in a friend’s house”. This letter was sent by Finlay along with the handout for the Patriot Gallery (which has a separate listing in this collection) which is the exhibition by Stitt he refers to in this letter. "I also enclose a catalogue Jessie and I made, for the gallery Jessie was to run here, unfortunately, the nasty posh lady who owned the gallery, objected to some of the people who were invited to the opening, and there was an argument, and Jessie got sacked, whereupon the artist withdrew his paintings, so there never WAS an exhibition. However the artist gave us three prints of his etching, Bird descending, and I thought you might like to have one as a little present so here it it. P Stitt has much nicer things but he will certainly be famous one day, so the etching will be good to have...

18 Jun A VERY PARTICULAR HILL. 1963.

Posted at 15:57h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Edinburgh: WIld Hawthorn Press, 1963
15 x 20.5Ccm, 20pp. Original wrappers that wrap around. A poetry book with 10 verses by Turnbull - with linocuts by Alexander McNeish. This was the fourth book published by The Wild Hawthorn Press. VG+. Murray 1.4.

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06 Jun PARTISAN GALLERY HANDOUT. 1963. AN EXHIBITION THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE.

Posted at 13:47h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Edinburgh: Partisan Gallery, 1963 23.7 x 36cm, 1pp, broadside and gallery handout for an exhibition of work by Peter Stitt, printing an original poem each by Ian Hamilton Finlay ("20 - a PS")and Jerome Rothenberg ("Call it Heaven). This is a very early Finlay contribution where he designed the broadside for a gallery that was released for an exhibition of works by Stitt and that was curated by Finlay's then wife Jessie McGuffie (but the opening caused a rift between the gallery owner and McGuffie as the latter had invited some guests who the owner thought crude.) The artist then withdrew his paintings and the show was cancelled. Lists the works exhibited by Stitt, one of which was lent by Finlay. Stitt was subsequently featured by Finlay in Poor Old Tired Horse issues #8 and #9, after which he moved to London. The Finlay poem is one of the very first that can be clearly identified as a concrete poem, it is a typescript where each work or small phrase is linked by lines to create relationships between the words and their positioning on the page and relative to each other. This is an extremely rare and important publication which has a very similar design style to Fish Sheet One but was never widely distributed because of the falling out between McGuffie, Finlay "and the posh lady who owned the gallery" (from a TLS to be found elsewhere in this collection that was sent along with this catalogue). Folded twice for mailing. VG+. ...

15 May POTH (POOR OLD TIRED HORSE) NR 7. 1963. WITH PICTORAL INSERT.

Posted at 11:03h in Poor Old Tired Horse + Broadsides

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, 4pp + 1pp insert. The seventh number of Finlay’s poetry publication with contributions by Kurt Schwitters (translated by Lesley Lendrum), Paul Celan (translated by Helmut Bonheim), Robert Creeley, Piero Heliczer, Mario Trufelli (translated by Cid Corman); Andrei Voznesensky (translated by Edwin Morgan), Crombie Saunders, Paul Blackburn, Richard Huelsenbeck (translated by Jerome Rothenberg), Robert Simmons, Hamish McLaren, Bud Neill, Fernano Lemos, and Alexander McNeish. This is a very hard to find early number of this international review - hardly any exist on the open market. This example is VG. BR> The inserted sheet has three images in b/w by Bud Neill and Alexander McNeish as well as the work Drawing by Ferando Lemos which is clearly a visual poem and continues the introduction of such work to the POTH series. Thereafter this number almost all following issues were primarily concerned with such formats rather than traditional poetry structures. BR>...

16 Apr WILD HAWTHORN PRESS PRICE LIST. 1963.

Posted at 20:59h in Miscellany

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1963)
29.4 x 20.4cm, 1pp offset lithographic price list for the Press. Mentions the early publications from the Press and some such as Jonathan William's Lullabies Twisters Gibbers Drags which the Press was the distributor for in the UK. Former fold else VG+....

10 Apr APPROCHES. 1963.

Posted at 18:43h in Page Works & Contributions

Paris: Approchest, n.d. (1963)
20.5 x 13cm, 130pp plus original wrappers. A single number of a poetry journal edited by Julian Blaine and Jean-Francois Bory. The editors were aware of the growing changes in experimental poetry and here one finds Pierre Garnier, Jeff Nuttall, John Furnival, de Campos, de Vree, Blaine and Bory alongside Finlay's BROKEN HEART which can be found in Rapel.
The spine and wrappers here are attached but with tears - a bit fragile but a rare early Finlay international contribution and a sign of his growing reputation amongst his peers. Else VG.

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18 Mar RAPEL / 10 FAUVE AND SUPREMATIST POEMS. 1963.

Posted at 13:56h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
30 x 21cm, Soft cover. First edition. Cream card folder, front panel and flap at rear printed in black, containing only 11 loose sheets printed on one side only: dedication printed in black, 'a peach an apple' printed in blue, a valentine in green, the practice in black, formal poem in three colours, carousel in two colours. Wrappers and contents in fine condition with the exception of a slight tear on the back right fold. Exceptionally rare very early Finlay visual poetry publication.
This was the first wholly conceived "concrete" poetry book by Finlay and contains some of his best known works (which were later reprinted in anthologies and other Finlay publications as well as in different mediums such as unique glass works.

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12 Mar FORMAL POEM. 1963. ONE OF A SMALL NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SIZED OFFPRINTS.

Posted at 11:17h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
26.2 x 21.5cm, 1pp blue, green and yellow silkscreen on white card. A concrete poem by Finlay which was created for the Rappel artist's book however a small number of additional sheets in a different size were released - of which this is one. The words 'deer' and 'tree' are placed in different combinations to create small word pictures with the final image the words are conjoined to make "treed" with ree in green. Very scarce. In VG+ condition....

02 Feb FISH-SHEET ONE. 1963

Posted at 20:57h in Wild Hawthorn Press

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963
21 x 30cm. single folded sheet printed with texts by six contributors. Unique number of this precursor to Finlay's revue Poor Old Tired Horse. Issued in broadside format, Fish Sheet One is composed of quasi-concrete poetic experiments by Pete Brown, Spike Hawkins, J.F. Hendry, Anselm Hollo, Edwin Morgan and Finlay. Folded as issued. A very good+ example of this early and quite elusive production of the press. Ref.: Murray 1.3.

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14 Jan LEDLANET NIGHTS EXHIBITION. 1963. FINLAY’S FIRST EVER EXHIBITION.

Posted at 16:59h in Exhibition Catalogues

N.p. (Near Edinburgh): n.p. (John Calder), 1963
26.5 x 10cm, 14pp (one page is half size). Mimeographed with similar card cover. The extremely rare first exhibition catalogue that was Finlay's first show alongside the Cobra artist William Gear and Alexander Trocchi and others. Each artist has a page dedicated to them and Hamilton-Finlay's (sic) test is somewhat amusing - including a reworking of his "Notice - please do not feed the boats." and notes Finlay as the inventor of the "Wold (sic) Hawthorne Airship (banned)."
According to wikipedia: " Ledlanet Nights in Kinrosshire, Scotland, was an arts festival that operated from 1962 for around ten years (...

01 Jan STANDING POEM 1 (PEAR PPEAR APPEAR). 1963.

Posted at 16:40h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh; Wild Hawthorne Press, 1963
20 x 28.5cm, green and mustard printed on light brown card. Very rare folding card (three creases to make an irregular standing rectangle) the very first card sculpture by Finlay.
This example also has the original printed mailing envelope and the instruction leaflet showing how to fold the work.
The evolution of the word PEAR to APPEAR is reversed in the DISAPPEAR to PEAR section of the card. Finlay liked the progression of words and images - the similarity of each step to the previous one added layers of meaning. A fruit - a pear - both becomes visible and invisible in turn. Formed (grown) and consumed even. A very rare item especially with the envelope and the leaflet.

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01 Jan LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES/HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES. 1963. (NOT IN ANY CATALOGUE RAISONNE)

Posted at 15:37h in Artist's Postcards

N.p.: s.p. (Finlay), 1963
15.5 x 10cm, 4pp (asymmetric fold). Black on yellow card. One of Finlay’s most early of concrete works, this Xmas card has the two texts printed in such a manner that the overlapping front of the card reads LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES but when opened HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES.
The text references the format of newspaper headlines (which Finlay used in several early postcard and bookworks) and suggests the unlikely idea of circulating fish found near a long strip of land which when opened reveals the season's greetings. This card is not found in any catalogue raisonne and is very rare. This example has a handwritten and signed greeting from Finlay.
15.5 x 10cm, 4pp (asymmetric fold). Black on yellow card. One of Finlay’s most early of concrete works, this Xmas card has the two texts printed in such a manner that the overlapping front of the card reads LAPPY ISTHMUS FISHES but when opened HAPPY CHRISTMAS WISHES.

The text references the format of newspaper headlines (which Finlay used in several early postcard and bookworks) and suggests the unlikely idea of circulating fish found near a long strip of land which when opened reveals the season's greetings. This card is not found in any catalogue raisonne and is very rare. This example has a handwritten and signed greeting from Finlay....