Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
10 x 10cm, 4pp. Folding card with a line drawing by Stephen Duncalf, of a plastic model of a tank on the front - the various parts waiting to be assembled are still on the plastic stalks. Inside is a poem:
AUTUMN.
brings us again
familiar colour<Desert Yellow,
Panzer Grey.
The colours of the Fall are conjured up in the colours used by model makers for tank camouflage. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
12.2 x 8cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Gary Hinks on the front which is in the style of the Edlich who used wood and other found objects in his cubist-like works. Here the drawing shows what looks like a found piece of wood with the word "JACOBIN" on it. One assumes Finlay felt that Edlich was somewhat Jacobin in his life. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
18.5 x 12.2, 4pp. Folding card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks on the front which is a wild rose. The date 1794 was an important year in the French revolution as it not only saw the death of Danton by degree but also the Law of 22 Prairial where Robespierre centralised his unofficial dictatorship over the country by removing rights of defendants when accused of sedition or slandering the state. The wild rose for Finlay (which here has a bud alongside a fully opened flower) is signifying the wild actions of the Committee for Public Safety but also the potential of the revolution (which ultimately failed like most and returned France to the monarchy then Napoleon's despotism). This "definition" was used by Finlay in other works including a limited edition vase for wild flowers. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1993
18.5 x 10.6, 4pp. Folding card with a reproduced colour painting by Gary Hincks on the front which is of a yellow wild flower. The definition of a Wildflower is given by Finlay as "A Mean Term between Virtue & Revolution". The word "mean" has two meanings here - an averaging or the synthesis of the two ideas of virtue and revolution and/or the effects of the themes of virtue and revolution causing chaos and unpleasantness (which is a mild way of describing The Terror). VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
9 x 7cm, 4pp (single folded sheet of card). The text which is embossed (raised) on this card to keep it white like snow reads:
SWANS IN WINTER
Snow on
the snow of
their wings
One of the most beautiful of the Xmas cards and very scarce. VG+ condition....
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
23.5 x 6.5cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing of old fashioned bee hives by Gary Hincks on the front with Finlay's text which is repurposing Pindar's classical reference to the "temple of the bees". The humming of the insects is compared to religious singing. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
7.6 x 8.5cm, 4pp card. A schematic drawing by Eva Maria Weinmayr of the Villa and its environs. A descRIption of the Villa, which is set in the German Wörlitzer Park, notes how the building has a son et lumiere event where a "volcano" - actually a "rock island" - would spill water down to the lake lit by lanterns to make the event seem like lava. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
12.5 x 14.8cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Michael Harvey on the front and inside. The watering can has the text on it that is repeated inside the card so it can be read in full: "The mute dispenser of the vernal shower". The latter is an adaption of Thomas Gray’s 1769 "Sweet is the breath of vernal shower . . . The still small voice of gratitude" (‘Ode for Music’). The water from the watering-can is now a spring-time shower but without any sound of rain. Finlay may also be reminding the reader of the events of Arrosoir 1974 when Robespierre and his cohorts were removed overnight by his colleagues on the National Convention but that was July and perhaps not a spring cleansing shower - that is moot. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a painting by Gary Hincks on the front of a woman wearing a republican rosette watering flowers. The original is a Kate Greenaway painting albeit Hincks has altered the imagery a little and the word Thermidor placed top left. Lilies grow behind her (a symbol of the French crown) and she is watering red roses. Arrosoir was the month when Robespierre and his cohorts were removed overnight by their colleagues on the National Convention and the revolutionary calendar month's name translates to watering-can. Thermidorian reaction led eventually to the re-establishment of the French monarchy but the replacement to Robespierre while not as virulent was still a committed revolutionary regime. The painting is a cute metaphor for the events of July 1794. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
8.4 x 15.4cm, 4pp card. Two water colour paintings by Gary Hincks of a embroidered name tag for clothing with the name "Philippe Francoise Nazaire Fabre" and a signpost with the text "Fabre D'Eglantine".
Fabre D'Eglantine was the pen name of Philippe Francoise Nazaire Fabre, the revolutionary actor and poet. Close to Danton he was the president of the Cordeliers club and also member of the Jacobin Club. He went to the guillotine along with the rest of the Dantonists after his personal actions in accepting financial gain from the corrupt actions around the East India Company having given Robespierre an excuse to act against his opponents and his previous friend Danton.
The two paintings show Fabre's aristocratic roots and his later more revolutionary activities in their forms - one elaborate, the other rough and practical. Fabre was also the main writer of the French republican calendar.
VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
10.4 x 14.8cm, 2pp. A photograph by Ron Costley show a relief on a wall that has the sculpted word FiGLEAF over which leaves have been painted. In front of that the photograph shows more leaves but real this time. Hence the work about censorship is itself censored. Meta. VG+.
This example of the card has a short signed note in blue ink from Finlay to John Stathatos giving the latter Stuart Mill's address.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Gary Hincks on the front of a ship in a storm. On the back Finlay lists the names of some of the RN "Flower" class corvette - of which the ship depicted is one. The unpredictable torrents it rides causing it to be a "wild" flower . VG+
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