Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
13.2 x 16.5cm, 2pp card with a b/w photograph by Robin Gillanders of three toilet rolls that have been painted and place on a table such that the image looks like the funnels on a steam boat. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
17.7 x 12.5cm, 2pp folding card with a watercolour by Janet Boulton after a boat model by Ian Hamilton Finlay identified as a "French Sardine Lugger". Boulton did a number of such paintings and Finlay seems to have enjoyed them. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.2 x 5.2cm, 4pp folding card printed green and blue on white with the text reversed. The two inner folds read:
Faint,
Lingering
Under
The
Elms
and
Faint,
Lingering
Under
The
Eaves
Both poems have the word FLUTE made up of their first letters and this indicates that both poems should be associated with sound. The former with birds in the trees (the birds' home), the second with sounds in a home. Finlay finds both sounds "enchanting" and magical one assumes. A pretty card. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
8.2 x 8.2cm, 8pp folding concertina card printed black on light brown. The three folds read:
LEAF & BOAT
BOAT & BARK
BARK & LEAF
Each recombination infers a different poetic image - the first the similarity between a floating leaf and a boat, the second the wood that makes up both boat and bark (bark peeled away will form a hollow structure) and finally the tree itself. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
14.7 x 11.5cm, 2pp. A colour image by Cornelia Wieg of carved names on a tree that has been rotated by 90 degrees to make the work seem abstract and somewhat like a photograph of a flower. This is one of three times this image is used in a Finlay publication - once as an editioned print, once as a card (here) and also on an announcement card for the print. There is a longer discussion of this work on the print entry in this cataloguing. VG+.
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Little Sparta/Nottingham: Wild Hawthorn Press/Tarasque Press, 1996
15.5 x 11.3cm, 2pp. A constellation of short translated haiku which were previously allocated to their Japanese authors have the names of the original writers crossed out and replaced by names from the English National football time such as:
Breakwater posts
the sea so calm
on the other side
Paul Gascoigne
The original poems were translated by Stuart Mills and Finlay appended the footballers. Finlay suggesting that the poems give up some essence of the sportsman.
This card has a short dedication in ink on the back from Mills to Robertson "for Paul from Stuart". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
15.2 x 13.5cm, 42pp, card with a photograph by Robin Gillanders where Finlay has associated the fast flowing stream with that of an Italian racing car. This image was also used in the "Dear Stiglitz" portfolio. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
8.8 x 12.6cm, 1pp, artist's postcard printed black on brown. There is a "found free style haiku" from a book on model boats:
drift (mist) net
The card published in Autumn reflects the colours of the fall and the weather. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9.5 x 15.2cm, 4pp, folding card with a drawing of a row of beached boats in Hastings by Gary Hincks printed black on brown. There are three one line poems inside the card:
The WEST COUNTRY STONE BARGE bares mortal timbers
the HASTINGS LUGGER steers backwards slowly
The LEIGH BAWLEY sails on silent sails.
Finlay as ever likes a pun or an association with a sound - the Bawley (Bawl) is silent not loud, the Lugger goes backwards because traditionally it was launched stern first and the Stone Barge carries wood not stone. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
6.5 x 5.4cm, 4pp. A drawing of dwarf beans by Gary Hincks has a two line poem inside:
DWARF BEANS
BR>
The stalks, wrists, appear too delicate
for the quarter-moons and leaves.
Finlay compares the shape of the long thin beans to the waxing or waning moon. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7.6 x 6.9cm, 4pp, A drawing of a thistledown by Gary Hincks on the front of the card has a poem by Finlay inside:
THISTLEDOWN
BR>
the early snows of thistledown
the airy asterisks of thistledown
the clotted cream of thistledown
the distant peaks of thistledown
Four different one line visual poems by Finlay all use thistledown as their essential metaphor. Thistledown is white and fluffy which is somewhat strange given the astringency of the rest of the thistle. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.8 x 7cm, 4pp, A drawing of two parts of a model boat hull by Gary Hincks has internally:
BUILDING THE HULL
First plank
this half
then plank
that half
then wonder why
2 matching halves
won't fit
The word plank here has a double meaning - in lowland Scots it means "to place" - hence the poem can be read as either a description of bad design or bad construction. VG+.
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