Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
12.9 x 20.9cm, 2pp artist's card with a sepia tinted photograph by Robin Gillanders.The image is of a shelf of model boats made by Finlay - the boats are all placed facing a single direction - making the collection look like a fleet. Boatshelf being a neologism that is similar to bookshelf. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1997)
6.4 x 6.8cm, 4pp. Artist's postcard a drawing by Gary Hincks of a pedelo.
A text internally reads:
Visitor
Veni
VIDA.
Vici.
She came
She saw
She sailed
The text references and updates a Latin phrase popularly attributed to Julius Caesar who, according to Appian, used the phrase in a letter to the Roman Senate around 47 BC after he had achieved a quick victory in his short war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela, the updating presumably referring to a modern visitation by the boat.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
8 x 16cm, 2pp artist's card with typography by Michael Harvey printed green and lime on white card. The poem reads
GROVE.
FLYING-JIB OR OUTE-JIB. MAIN-STAYSAIL JIB. MAIN-TRYSAL. FORE-STAYSAIL MIZEN-STAYSAIL. FORE-TRYSAIL JIB-HEADED SPANKER
The ship is described by its various masts and sails - the verticality of which reminds Finlay of a grove of trees. The bring colour of the card also evokes vegetation. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
11.3 x 7.6cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of a ship by Gary Hincks printed black on blue. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
PORTMADOC NAMES.
of fathers
mothers
owners
aunties
ships
Finlay notes the tradition in Pormadoc of naming boats after relatives - and in the final line of the work he equates the ships to being as much alive as the characters they are named after. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
9.5 x 5.7cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing of coiled boat ropes by Gary Hincks. Inside the folded card is a poem by Finlay:
BOAT LORE
Sails
are sails
but ropes
are
sheets
or stays.
On one level a simple explanation of boating terms (sailboat sheets are ropes or lines that are used to trim a sail), on another a deeper consideration of tautology and meaning. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.5 x 11.9cm, 2pp silkscreen artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of pencils in a jar that are also propellors. One of the most attractive of Finlay's later postcards. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997 9 x 2cm, 21pp. Second of three cards issued by the press that displays the effects of the "clinker" method of boat building where the edges of hull planks overlap each other. The boat number (which for Finlay is often a poetic construct anyway) is broken up by the irregular sides of the hull. The drawing is by Gary Hincks. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
10.6 x 14.8cm, 2pp artist's card with various boats numbers which create a sort of phonetic poem:
4 F43 BF437
5 A58
K CK4 BCK41
VG+.
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Basel: Stampa, 1997 15 x 10.5cm, 2pp announcement card for a art fair presentation of Finlay's work. The front of the card shows a sculptural form of his SAILS/WIND work - the shape of the chair seat and back mirroring the concrete poem painted on the chair. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
17.0 x 6.3cm, 4pp outer folder content of two "cards" both 17.0 x 6.3cm, 1pp but one is a red and black drawing by Gary Hincks of a rudder and the other a transparent plastic with the word "Varnish" at the top. The plastic placed over the drawing reproduces the shine of the varnish one finds on most rudders. VG+.
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Wein: Herbert Winter, 1997
10.5 x 15cm, 1pp. Typographic announcement card for a Finlay solo show printed purple on white. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
20 x 13.8cm, 2pp artist's card with a drawing (elevations and plan) by Peter Coates of the sides of a memorial urn.
Novalis was the pseudonym of Friedrich von Hardenberg a German Romantic poet - the urn has on one side the name Sophie who was the poet's young love (13 when they met!) but who died not long after before she was 16. The other side of the urn has the abbreviated Greek name for Christ in some emotional sense equating the dead girl to the godhead. The top of the urn has a stylised eternal flame. VG+.
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