Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10 x 12.5cm, 4pp artist's card printed black on white with a list of the "Flower-class" corvettes that were loaned to the USA after 1942 the ship names (all named after flowers) were changed to be more in keeping with US naming conventions. These ships were therefore changed into different things much as all of the heroes and things in Ovid's Metamophoses were. Hence the title of the card. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
8 x 10cm, 4pp artist's card printed black on grey with a drawing of a battleship by Gary Hincks
Inside the card Finlay notes the participants of the "Battle of the Flowers" in 1941/1942 - Loosestrife, Larkspur, Balm.
There were 294 "Flower-class" corvettes engaged in the second world war all of which had names of flowers, the first two here both were involved in the Battle of the Atlantic and the third boar was never actually commissioned - Finlay has this name noted as "(cancelled)". Finlay returned time and time again to this naming convention for the battleships in cards and prints because of its use of the names of a wide number of blooms. VG+.
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25 x 19.8cm, original vintage silver gelatine photograph of a sculpture (wheel barrow) in Little Sparta taken by Finlay's collaborator Robin Gillanders in 1998. In original glass and wood frame. Purchased at a charity auction in the same year.
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Nailsworth: Cairn Gallery, 1998
38 x 29cm, 1pp black on gloss paper. Large b/w inkjet (as issued) exhibition poster for a show of images from Little Sparta taken by Janet Boulton and David Paterson. One image of a broken column in situ in Finlay's garden reproduced on the front. Slightly ripped along edges. Not many produced.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
10.2 x 15.2cm, 1pp artist's card printed brown and green on white with a text in French:
LE SOCIALISME DEVRAIT FAIRE POUR LE PEUPLE CE QUE LE CUBISME
A FAIT POUR LE COUTEAU, LA FOUCHETTE ET LEA CUILLERE.
In translation that reads that "socialism should do for the people what cubism has done for the knife, the fork and the spoon".
Cubist still-life paintings often showed common implements such as knives and forks as significant elements in their composition, and Finlay here is suggesting that socialism should raise the lot of working people and give them significance in a similar manner. This was the second of two cards with the same text but with different designs - here the look of the card is much more like a wall poster and demanding. VG+.
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30 x 24cm, b/w original photograph taken by Robin Gillanders of Little Sparta for his book "‘Little Sparta, Portrait of a Garden". This shows one of Finlay's garden sculptures of a submarine. Gillanders took the images between 1994 and 2004. Originally a gift from the photographer to Janet Boulton, one of Finlay's later collaborators and a friend to both Gillanders and the poet. VG+.
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Seven colour photographs (each 10 x 15cm) of untitled watercolours by Janet Boulton nased on views of Little Sparta. All VG.
JOINT WITH:
30 x 21cm, 1pp gallery handout for the exhibition of the watercolours listing the works G
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Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1998
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp postcard with a b/w photograph of the gardens at Little Sparta taken by Robin Gillanders. The image here is of a faux gravestone for YOURNAME/A Lyme Ketch found in the gardens. VG+.
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Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1998
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp postcard with a b/w photograph of the gardens at Little Sparta taken by Robin Gillanders. The image here is of the large golden head of Apollo found in the gardens. VG+.
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Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 1998
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp postcard with a b/w photograph of the gardens at Little Sparta taken by Robin Gillanders. The image here is a water lily in the Garden pond. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
9.5 x 15cm, 2pp card. The text printed gray on white in reverse reads:
trackless snows of the cool icelandic girl
The white on grey makes the card seem cold and distant perhaps reflecting the virginal scene.
We do not know the date of this card but we believe it to be a late printing but published prior to Finlay's death. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998
11.3 x 9cm, 20pp with card covers and printed dust jacket. Five drawings of warboats by Gary Hincks show the battleships with their varying camouflage paints. Below each is an anagram of each ship's name (all named after flowers) which by the jumble has "camouflaged" the names. Finlay kindly gives the answers to the anagrams at the back of the book.
One of 250 copies. VG+.
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