Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 4pp black and red on white card.
The card lists twelve new names of the months of the year (much like the way the French Revolutionary calendar renamed the year. The names "Month of the Hurricane", "Month of the Snowman" mostly reflect the weather but there are also references to the events of 1793 but one line is printed in festive red "Month of the Pocket Battleship" which one may assume is the month around Christmas (this being a Christmas card). December is hence now the 4th month and a pocket battleship being a toy may be seen as a children's gift.,BR> This example of the card has a relatively long (for a small card) message from Finlay to Stuart (Mills?) "doesn't this card remind you a wee line of Old Times, even if it is not printed in 60's sepia? I thinkI made it especially for you. How are you? That rotten firm never answered my letter about their rotten clockwork boat. Love to all, your chum, Ian. 12.12.84". An insightful short missive. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
8.8 x 10.2cm , 1pp black and red on white card.
The card has an illustration by Mark Stewart after a painting by Jacques Blanchard of Paris and Oenone. Oenone was Paris' first wife who he dumped for Helen of Troy. The card has a cut-out which creates a small version of a tree plaque in three dimensions. The card refers to five oval plaques having been made each with the names of classical lovers and five rectangular plaques with tree names. They were exhibited in the "English Garden: in Merian Park, Basel". VG+.

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57 x 10 x 44cm, etched glass on custom made wooden stand. The concrete poem is made up of a number of anagrams of the word "DAZZLE" although the word itself is not found on the etched glass plate. This is an unique sculptural version of a poem first published in 1979 as an artist's book by Finlay. The Dazzle ships were battleships in the second world war where zigzag patterns were painted on the side to help camouflage the outlines of the vessel. By showing all of the mixed up letters but not the original word Finlay is creating a visual poem abstracting the real life boats. We do not know the date of this work - we suspect it is from the 1980s. In VG+ condition,...

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
10 x 10.5cm, 1pp artist's card with a drawing of a marble temple in a landscape by Mark Stewart below which Finlay has added a definition work:
TEMPLE, n, a marble edifice, a veined edifice; the sear or summit of reason.
and two quotations from Ovid's Metamorphses and Finlay's own Despatches from the Little Spartan War. In the former quote Philemon and Baucis have their hut turned into a Temple - which Finlay clearly regards as a similar process to his own renaming of a building on the estate as the Garden Temple. The second quote notes how Strathclyde raided the Garden Temple to take away artworks in lieu of what they claimed was unpaid rates. Clearly Finlay saw the second events as sacrilegious. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1984)
21 x 15cm, 1pp printed red on cream paper. The order form for the two limited edition medals issued by Finlay as commemorations of the Little Sparta wars - First Battle of Little Sparta and Terror/Virtue. Scarce ephemera from the period when Finlay took on the might of Strathclyde Region over local property taxes and sort of won. Central vertical crease else VG.

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30 x 21cm, 1pp vintage b/w xerox copy of two articles one of which is a news report of a theft from a Hindu temple and the other of Christie's auctioneers holding the artworks taken by Strathclyde Region under a poinding of items in Finlay's Garden Temple after their dispute over what they claimed were unpaid rates. Finlay has added a typed headline above both "CHECKPOINT SANDY STRIKES AGAIN!" and circulated the xerox to friends and supporters to point out the hypocrisy of the situation. VG+.

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Edinburgh: Graeme Murray Gallery, 1984
18 x 12cm, 1pp. The announcement card for a show of mostly small sculptural works and editions. The drawings of such works shown by and Nicholas Sloan. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984 18.3 x 12.4cm , 1pp black on white card. The card appropriates a first world war recruitment poster with the original question "What did you do in the Great War Daddy?" replaced with a question about the Little Spartan War.
This card was sent to Harry Warschauer by Finlay and is hand addressed but also has two rubber stamp impressions one in red: "LITTLE SPARTA IS A LUCID MOMENT IN STRATHCLYDE REGION" and in blue "CONVERSE BY TOOM-TOM IN STRATHCLYDE REGION". VG+ although some ink smears caused by the postal system and the franking.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
16 x 14cm , 1pp black on white card.
The card appropriates Lord Kitchener first world war recruitment image with the slogan altered to "NEOCLASSICISM NEEDS YOU". A clarion call. VG+.

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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
21 x 21cm (unfolded size) , two-sided folding paper which turns into a paper dart - with a marbled pattern on one side.
The inner message is "THE MARBLE ARROW ALWAYS HITS ITS MARK!". Finlay has made this into a paper dart which is a weapon of sorts in the Little Spartan Wars. VG+.

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Noordwijk: MW Press 28, January 1983
38 x 28cm, 20pp. Artist's journal in the form of a tabloid newspaper which here has an 3pp contribution by Finlay - three full pages of "mean terms" - those of Wildflower, Net, Shadow and Sackcloth. The paper is fragile due to being very cheap and is unavoidable browned. Folded for storage. Very scarce.

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London: Serpentine Gallery, 1984
21 x 21.5cm, 48pp plus card covers and dustjacket. Exhibition catalogue for a rather strange transporting of the Murray Edinburgh Gallery to London, various works by the likes of Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Sol Lewitt, Alan Johnson and five works by Finlay reproduced in the catalogue. VG+.

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