Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15,5 x 17.6cm, 6pp folding card printed on one side only black on pink with a drawing of three partially blown dandelion seed heads by Laurie Clark. The French title means flower clock - and the partly distributed seeds on the heads of the drawing remind one of a coded time - - perhaps a quarter before four?
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
7.5 x 7.8cm, 4pp small folding card with a drawing of a church and a beached boat by Laurie Clark. The scene has several elements that are visually similar - the four leaf plants (clovers?), the propellor on the boat, and the church windows all have the same shape. The word "Eastertide" simply means Easter but it has additional meaning because the boat cannot move until the tide comes in. Additionally in the Biblical myth around Jesus, the role of fish and fishermen as metaphors are often central. One is forced to conclude this is a religious card - something that does not come up too often in Finlay's work. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
11.7 x 13.5cm, 4pp. The front of the card has a poem under the title:
Lily has grown
a full stop.
Iris has not<BR
On the back of the card is a photograph by Dave Paterson of a small wooden sculpture by Finlay called "Lily" and the poem is an adaption of a Cutt's poem FAMILY which we believe to be about the latter's children but cannot confirm. Finlay's mild parody references the photograph where an additional floating "leaf" appears to have been attached to the sculpture by wire - almost as if it has grown -the shape of the leaf, is like the round full stop. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
4.5 x 11cm, 4pp. Black on light brown card with a drawing of ketch boats on the front by what looks like Gary Hincks but is uncredited. Inside is the two line poem:
HOMAGE TO THE L. A. DOUST ART MANUALS
s
ketch
The art manuals were a popular adult and child series of books which were meant to teach drawing skills. Finlay uses the front cover drawing as a icon for that activity and makes a joke by adding the s to the name of the boats to make "sketch.VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
16.5 x 13.5cm, 4pp. A b/w photograph of a model airplane made by Finlay has alternative sides of the plane painted in different colours. The homage of Jean Gris the cubist brings to mind his painting of a Pierrot where alternative sides of the actor's clothing are different colours (presumably in part by patching - a symbolism of love for Finlay). Photograph by Dave Paterson. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. A drawing by Gary Hincks of the deck of an aircraft carrier is labelled with the Greek and the English quotation - the divided meadows of Aphrodite. As discussed elsewhere on this site (a blanket in the object multiples section) this does not only reference the verdant landscapes of the classical Greerk gods but also is a sexual metaphor for the goddess' labia. The drawing shows the red path where the planes take off and land on - which is clearly a visual reference to the vaginal opening. VG+
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
14.7 x 11cm, 2pp. Two photographs are shown - one of a harbour with a boat (LH 62 - a trawler) and below it (by Vic Smeed) a commercial image of four modern irons with model numbers and the brand name Sunbeam in front of them. The visual correspondence is in the shape of the front of the irons and the prow of the boat. And the numbers on both images allow Finlay to suggest that the subject of the photographs are prototypes of each other. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
10.1 x 14.7cm, 2pp. A photograph by Paterson of two model rockets (with wings) coming out of thick cloud (cotton wool) is identified as two V1s of the Kirschkern (Cherry Stone) project. The V1 was the much feared German "flying bomb" that was used indiscriminately against the British population in and around London during the blitz
Much like a cherry stone that one bites onto without warning, these bombs would fall without warning (if you heard the sound of them falling then you were safe as the auditory waves followed the missile's path because of speed - cf the theme of the wonderful Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon)> A cherry stone might hurt your crunching teeth and the German codename for the missile project reinforces that consideration. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
13.2 x 10.5cm, 2pp. A line drawing by Jim Nicholson of a forest scene with poppies in the foreground is given the title by Finlay of "Panzer at the forest edge" in German. The camouflage of the tank seems to be perfect as one cannot see it in the drawing (in fact it is not there).
Perhaps the poppies - a flower associated with remembrance of war dead - are there to remind one of a destroyed tank (and there are references to such a rout of the German armoured force in the literature where 14 tanks were destroyed at 'the edge of the forrest" but that may be coincidence. IN any case one of several cards that uses the idea of tanks in a landscape as a momento mori. VG+.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp. The two sides of this card mostly reflect the design of each other - on one the standard stamp/postcard design (with a vertical line) and on the other a mirror image of the design in blue but where the square is denoted as "stamp" it instead says "sail" and the vertical line has become a horizontal sea horizon. Hence the blue side becomes an abstract seascape with a boat. VG+.
JOINT WITH:
Original hand addressed card envelope to Seamus Coney who edited some of Finlay's artist books that were published in the USA>
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15 x 10.5cm, 2pp. The front of the card with a drawing by John Andrew of stored planes with partially raised wings to allow more to be stored together (probably in the guts of an aircraft carried) is compared with birds in the nest and the lulling of a lullaby. This image is also found as a print and on various other Finlay works - and is discussed elsewhere on this site. VG+.
JOINT WITH:
Stanard white mailing envelope with printed Wild Hawthorn Press address on it. Unmailed.
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Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
15 x 10.5cm, 1pp. A photograph of a model of a Nazi fighter plane (which appears to be a Messerschmitt ME 163 Komet) which has had the underside of the fuselage artificially coloured red in the image. The German title means robin (the red breasted small bird). The Messerschmitt was the only rocket powered fighter plane and very very fast. It turned out not to be that reliable an interceptor so it was rarely encountered - a little like the bird that is seasonal althougn we do not think that co-incidence was in Finlay's thinking when making this card. VG+.
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