Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.3 x 16cm, 2pp, artist's card with the names and numbers of various boats involved in ring netting in the shape of the Olympic's symbol. This year was the Olympics and as in 1992 Finlay created this card which honours both the games and the fishing fleet builders from Siminins. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
7 x 17.5cm, 4pp, artist's card which opens up to 7 x 35cm, 1pp. A text printed reverse blue on white reads "Andre Le Notre Lassoes Bernard Lassus!" André Le Nôtre was a French landscape architect and principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France and here Finlay suggests he dwarfs the reputation of his newly found enemy Lassus!. One of the "Picabia Series" and the last of three cards attacking Finlay's former colleague Bernard Lassus. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9 x 8cm, 4pp, artist's card with a reproduced painting by Janet Boulton of a model boat by Raymond Houareau, Finlay calls this a "Seychelles Stradivarious" alluding to the quality of the work done and the colour of the wood which reminds one of the body of an ancient violin. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.7 x 15.4cm, 1pp, artist's card with quotation from Bernard Lassus from Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art which is deliberately chosen to make Lassus seem egotistic - "In the United States...
London: Tate Gallery, 1996
30 x 21cm, 1pp. Announcement leaflet for a concert in honour of Finlay's 70th birthday with a trilogy of new works by Gabriel Jacks. The three parts are Eurydice, Ring of Waves and In Prairial and Thermidor. A snippet of the score is reproduced. VG+ although a slight printing error affecting the text.
...
London: Tate Gallery, 1996
5.5 x 8.5cm, 1pp event ticket and 10 x 21cm, 1pp compliments slip sent to Finlay's collaborator Janet Boulton as invitation to a concert in honour of Ian Hamilton Finlay and the premier of the "Wildflower Cycle". VG.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996 11.5 x 14cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a drawing of fishing creels by Kathleen Lindsey on the front an internally a poem by Finlay based on Theocritus's Idyll XX1, lines 6 - 13. The poem describes two old fishermen asleep next to their fishing gear and notes their blanket is "a gansey stiched (it seemed) from net". Gansey is a style of knitting that was used primarily by fishermen with a very large and loose stitch. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10 x 14.2cm, 1pp, artist's card with quotation from Bernard Lassus in Between Landscape Architecture and Land Art which is deliberately chosen to make Lassus seem stupid - "21 centimetres is 21 centimetres for me and not 22 centimetres". Finlay appends sarcastically "Remarkable. Who is this genius?". Lassus and Finlay had been friends (Lassus had written forewords for some of Finlay's catalogues) and this seems to mark a falling out (we at this point do not know what over). VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9 x 9cm, 8pp plus card wrappers. Artist's book which shows abstracted images of sails with different colours and shapes of the reef ropes (the ties that allow sails to be pulled together to reduce the area hitting the wind. On the double pages here, the paper becomes the sail. These were also prints issued by Finlay and also an exhibition. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10 x 14.5cm, 1pp, full colour artist's card with a photograph of Little Sparta where garden gnomes (which are not usually found in Finlay's garden) are next to a gravestone sculpture that calls to "Bring back the birch". The slogan "Bring back the birch" was a right-wing law and order slogan now not so often heard demanding the return of corporal punishment (whipping using a birch branch) but also is a call by Finlay to re-establish the birch tree in Scotland. An usually humorous card. This example is hand addressed to Janet Boulton and posted with franks and stamps. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
9.9 x 8.2cm, 2pp. Two paintings of the same village are reproduced, the first is labelled "an uninviting garden" despite being perfectly pleasant. The second photo-manipulated version of the same painting but elements have been taken away (flowers on the tree and in the grass and bushes) and other elements added (a pirate like figure, shops, a flock of birds on the grass, a carousing group of people in a coach) underneath this less appealing scene is the text "The same garden, improved by Strathclyde Region with the support of the Scottish Art Council".
Another attack on his enemies by Finlay.
This example of the card is hand addressed by Finlay to Janet Boulton. VG+.
...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
10.2 x 14.6cm, 2pp artist's card. The card gloats at the demise (due to local government reorganisation) of his enemy Strathclyde Region by altering a phrase from the French revolution "Lyons made war on Liberty/Lyons is no more" which refers to the revolt against Paris that was put down by violent force. VG+.
...