Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988,
32.6 x 26cm, black on cream lithograph in folder. A drawing by Gary Hinck of the forest next to a pond after the original by WIlliam Kent and a sketch of one of the tree-plaques. Each tree scupture has either SIlence, Schweigen or Silenzio on it "calling attention to the peaceful surroundings". Sadly this print had a faint diagonal crease on the left else VG in like unprinted folder.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. News from England: A gerbil was elected Grand Secretary of the University of East Anglia Student Union, and Waldemar Januszczak was appointed Literary Editor of the Guardian." and printed black on red. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "News from Strathclyde Region: In Strathclyde, where the Authority has direct access to the citizen's bank account, self-locking mattresses are all the rage." and printed black on red. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "Liberalism, n. a state of affairs in which the tree cuts down the axe" and printed black on yellow. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. "Deserters don't like to be reminded that this world is a battlefield." Saint-Just Vigilante on certain liberals who dislike disputes." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION. In liberal democracy the Police may be unarmed but Fashion carries a gun." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION "Don't be overheard saying that violence exists in the universe: you may get shot." Saint-Just Vigilante, after listening to Julian Spalding's radio interview with Ian Hamilton Finlay." and printed black on grey. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press / The Committee of Public Safety, 1988 4.4 x 9.9cm (folded size), 4pp artist's card with the text: "THE DESMOULINS CONNECTION/Millet, Hirschfeld, Hayat - certain natures compare to human nature as a modern slurry-pit to an old-fashioned farm-midden" and printed black on yellow. Issued by Finlay as part of a series of c. 13 similar small cards each attacking enemies of the poet. VG+. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
8.5 x 12.7cm, 4pp. Artist's card with a reproduced photograph of a Nazi rally where the red swastica flags are brightly coloured against the drab of the uniforms below which the text 'When Pleasures are Like Poppies Spread' (from Rabbie Burns) is continued "or banners in the beds of Roehm's Brown shirts".
Poppies, of course, have became a symbol of war remembrance and the comparison to the banners of evil amongst the crowd seems initially inappropriate but, more deeply, the visual metaphor is perhaps closer to a symbol of forthcoming death. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 5.5 x 9.8cm, 4pp (assymetric fold). A remembrance card for Martin Waters who was one of the Saint Just Vigilantes. VG+. Scarce. ...
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
15.4 x 24.4cm, black and light brown on white card - original linocut reproduced in offset lithograph. The print is folded with a text "Every effect remains in its cause, proceeds from it, and reverts upon it." a quote form Proclus, Elements of Theology. The image is of a group of boats close together in a harbour.
When boats are berthed in such a manner there is a tendency for them to move in synchronicity due to the waves. The classical quotation about cause and effect reflects that movement in some poetic manner. VG although there are sadly two ink lines on the outside of the card (where there is no image) and someone stupidly has not realised what the card was.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988
13.4 x 8.3cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a parody of the famous Haiku by Basho - here updated to being an attack on Michel Blum. The poem now reads:
old pond
frog pontificating
plop
The "frog" here becomes a charged none-too-acceptable reference to Blum's French nationality and the "plop" infers failure or something more scatalogical.
Not Finlay's finest hour although he use of the word "frog" was probably marginally more acceptable in 1988 than now. VG+.
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