30 x 24cm, b/w original photograph taken by Robin Gillanders of Ian Hamilton Finlay with his mutual friend and Finlay collaborator Janet Boulton. Originally a gift from the photographer to Janet Boulton. VG+.
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N.p. (Germany): n.p., n.d. (c. 1998)
Six original xerox handouts from an unknown gallery show - here a 30 x 42cm, 1pp of 18 portraits from Lew Suisse Morts, 1991 (folded as issued), and four 30 x 21cm, 1pp handouts - an image from the journal New Eter 1972 (which they erroneously date as 1991) and an image from Diese Kinder Suchen Ihre Eltern, 1994, another from Sachlich, 1995, Lost (1994) and Menschlich also 1994.. All VG.
It is not clear where exactly these came from but on the back of the large sheet there is a handwritten note "Institut de Francais, 1998".
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, Summer 1998
30 x 21cm, 1pp vintage xerox price list for all the cards available from the the Press with prices and hand annotations. VG+.
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Paris: Yvon Lambert, 1998 10 x 21cm, 2pp typographic announcement card for a group show of works by Pierre Bismuth, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Douglas Gordon and Lawrence Weiner. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10.2 x 14.6cm, 1pp artist's card with the title text with Finlay's reference showing the name Alysse relates to the Flower Class corvettes he finds so the drift of Alysse is not just a bunch of flowers but the movement of a ship. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
11.6 x 26cm, 2pp artist's card with an attractive colour photograph by Pia Maria Simig of a model boat (presumably one of Finlay's) on a river or lake with the bank behind. The title of the card suggests this was a pleasant moment and in some ways perfect. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
14.6 x 6.6cm, 1pp artist's card with two diagrams based on a pair of blue and red parallel stripes. Finlay indicated the first is really a hull even thought it may look like a blue/white/red flag. This is in fact a diagram of a Plimsoll line - which allows an observer to estimate the amount of ballast and the depth of the boat from the outside.
The second is indicated to be a flag not a hull - the colours have not changes but now represent the flag of a country - perhaps Columbia where may international ships are registered for tax reasons. VG+.
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Glasgow: Wax366, 1998
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp artist postcard with a colour image of tent made of reversible camouflage patterned fabric, on the reverse, the artist point out the patters were used for various German war machines. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10.7 x 7.8cm, 4pp artist's card printed black on white with a line drawing by Gary Hincks of a rudder. Internally there is a Finlay poem:
sanding a rudder
sawing a rudder
painting a rudder
patching a rudder
sealing a rudder
shipping a rudder
writing a rudder
The poem touches on all aspects of how a rudder might be made - that is, the way in which the unmade wood is guided into being a rudder. And at the end the final line refers to the foregoing - how to describe (write about /textually guide the way it is made) eight lines. Very self-referential. This work is dedicated by Finlay to Graham Rich and Ian Stephen, two friends who made much of their work about the sea and boats. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
22.5 x 12.4cm, 2pp artist postcard with an abstract painting by Gary Hincks of a rudder with the pintles very apparent- the outer shape of the rudder shown in dashed lines. The wooden strappings (which add strength to the structure) are coloured and more apparent. Those strappings not only guide the wood on the rudder (in themselves causing directionality like the rudder) but also a maze like image where any path is guided by the blue bars. A visual self-reference. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
12.7 x 22.6cm, 2pp artist postcard with an abstract painting by Gary Hincks of a Coble - a flat-bottomed fishing boat. The name Coble sounds very much like cobble and both share a characteristic of being roughly made and placed next to each other to form a shape (this is how a Coble hull is made - lengths of wood overlapping - which is shown in the painting with the red and blue stripes". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10 x 15cm, 2pp artist postcard with a colour photograph by Pia Maria Simig (PMS) of one of Finlay's boat models. On the back the card reads:
MFV
iHF, PMS
WHP
Obviously the names of model maker and photographer and the publisher are abbreviated and so is "Motor Fishing Vessel". Finlay obviously enjoying the game of every aspect of the card being reduced to capital letters. VG+.
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