25 Feb

Posted at 21:35h in Prints + Posters

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
35.5 x 44cm, red, orange and black offset lithograph. A first world war tank is overprinted in bright stripes - which of course would have been impractical as disguise in war. What the image does mostly remind one of is a private school tie - and that is the point here, the class origins of the army leadership in the first world war was an important part of the British aspects of the conflict.
This print is, in many ways, a companion print to ACADIA - a camouflaged Second World War tank.
The drawing is by Michael Harvey.

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18 Feb

Posted at 16:48h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
Three different cards - all 10.5 x 14.8cm, 2pp - each with a typographic design on the front with only the respective initials O.A.P.T./A.F.V.T./M.F.V.T and coloured backgrounds grey, mustard and blue. The initials stand for OLD AGE PENSIONERS TEA - and is allocated as for Simon Cutts, ARMOURED FIGHTING VEHICLE TEA and MOTOR FISHING VESSEL TEA both claimed for Finlay himself. A trio of related cards which are collectively designated by Finlay as "Tea-Cards" which recalls the small collectible cards found in tea packs as promotional items in the first half of the 20th century. One suspects a number of in-jokes between Finlay and Cutts are represented in these cards. VG+.

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10 Feb

Posted at 16:29h in Prints + Posters

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973
16 × 26.5cm, printed white outer folder content of a 16 × 26.5cm offset lithograph with an additional sheet with a key to the drawing. Karl Torok created a drawing of a topiary landscape for Finlay and each element is identifies as a member of a land-owning extended family and its staff eg Gardner, Cook, Great-Uncle William, Mama, Emily & Rose. It may be that this is an actual family portrait of sorts or a metaphor for how elements of a formal garden might be seen as related to each other. What is noticeable is that the father/mother and children are in the centre of the work and the more distant family and staff tend to be found at the sides. VG+.

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30 Jan

Posted at 16:57h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
8 x 11.5cm, 10pp - single folding sheet printed on one side only. An accordion folded sheet that opens out to five b/w vintage photographs from the Battle of Midway. The first image is of planes leaving the US fleet to attack the Japanese but the next four are of explosions which Finlay has designated as Fire Water, Shell Fire, Samphire and Ise. The reference is to the classical belief in four elements Earth, Fine, Air and Water - a theme that the poet expanded in other later works. VG+.
BR>...

28 Jan

Posted at 17:02h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
8.9 x 11.5cm, 1pp - single folding sheet printed black on grey. The drawing of a boat is above various lines representing the water level and waves. the instructions indicate ways of manipulating the card - Trim here, score here, fold here but the joke is that the boat is the type called a Trim. VG+.

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28 Jan

Posted at 14:29h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
8.9 x 11.5cm, 1pp - single folding sheet printed black on yellow. The drawing of a boat is above various lines representing the water level and waves. the instructions indicate ways of manipulating the card - Trim here, score here, fold here but the joke is that the boat is the type called a Trim. VG+. There were two variants of this item - one on grey paper the other on yellow. This is the latter.

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18 Jan

Posted at 17:06h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
11.3 x 18.7cm, 6pp - single white card printed on one side only. All in an unprinted custom folder. Typography by Stuart Barrie - the three panels read THE SEA'S WAVES/THE WAVES' SHEAVES/THE SEA'S NAVES. The three texts bring equivalence to the three images - the waves, the moving wheat and an unusual poetic image of the sea having a central part of a church. It is not obvious what Finlay means by the latter but it may be the wake of the ship left behind the moving boat. VG+.

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08 Jan

Posted at 17:12h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
14 x 12cm, 4pp - with a drawing of anchored boats in a river basin with trees on the shore. The title suggests that the boats are little more than wooden storage units which one cannot argue with when they are left to wait their next journey. Drawing by Michael Harvey. VG+.

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04 Jan

Posted at 17:16h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
10.2 x 10.2cm, 2pp - with a drawing of a tug by Ron Costley. The drawing is accompanied by the words Der Tag in a Germanic script - the German word for tug.VG+.

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20 Dec

Posted at 19:50h in Artist's Books

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1972
10.6 x 11.6cm, 24pp plus wrappers and pictorial dj - artist's book with ten concrete and visual poems and a frontispiece of a toy boat made by Finlay on the first end paper and also the dust jacket.

SHELF
sardines
pilchards
bottled ships

treats the tradition of making minature boats in bottles as if they are being preserved like tinned fish.
This is one of 350 copies each Signed and numbered by Finlay in ink at the back colophon. The date in some catalogue raisonne are given as 1971 but the colophon indicates with s Xmas publication in 1972.

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20 Dec

Posted at 11:01h in Artist's Postcards

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1972
25.9 x 11.4cm, 4pp Xmas card with the descending textL

tye
cringle
fall
shippon
parrel
carling
bitt
gooseneck
traveller
beam
tabernacle
manger
crib

The words "shippon", "manger" and "crib" are printed in red, the rest in black. A shippon is a cattle shed so the three red words relate to a visual poem of the Jesus birth scene. The other words all relate to ropes and knots or masts in sailing.
The placing of the words all left aligned suggest a mast on a ship. Finlay has referenced ships in the biblical story of the supposed virgin birth (the card "I See Three Ships" is one such example which takes its title from a festive carol) and the arrival of a ship seems to signify a welcoming or greeting of an event for Finlay. Of course the return or arrival of a boat in a fishing village would have such significance when every trip was a risk to the lives of the sailors and by extension the community.
Released as the annual Wild Hawthorn Xmas card the date 25 December is printed at the bottom of the card also in red. VG+.

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10 Dec

Posted at 18:22h in Page Works & Contributions

Epping: The Ember Press, 1972
21 x 15cm, 168pp. Original card covers. A single number of this poetry review - there is an article on Scottish poetry which fails to mention Finlay while claiming McDiarmid is the greatest (then) British living poet - something which must have thrilled Finlay given they had fallen out in the 60s. The cover however reproduces Finlay and Ron Costley's GOURD. A discussion on Gourd can be found in the print section of this Finlay website.

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