FORMAL POEM. 1963. ONE OF A SMALL NUMBER OF DIFFERENT SIZED OFFPRINTS.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1963 26.2 x 21.5cm, 1pp blue, green and yellow silkscreen on white card. A concrete poem by Finlay which was created for the Rappel artist's book however a small number of additional sheets in a different size were released - of which this is one. The words 'deer' and 'tree' are placed in different combinations to create small word pictures with the final image the words are conjoined to make "treed" with ree in green. Very scarce. In VG+ condition.

POSTER/POEM (LE CIRCUS!!) 1964. THE FOURTH EVER PRINT FROM THE WILD HAWTHORN PRESS.

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press 1964 43.2 × 56cm, blue, orange and black silkscreen on paper. One of the earliest and also most important of poster poems by Finlay. A concrete poem and word landscape. le circus!! is presumably the name of the boat which is equipped with a green and a red blinker on each side. It has the number K47. The ship is fully manned but also has corks, nets and the usual fishing tools. There is a phrase which says "they leap BARE-BACK through the rainbow's hoop" - which one might presume refers to fish but it seems also to be applicable to the boat. The whole paints a picture in words but also from the layout of the sections one can see how the various elements relate to each other in this snapshot of a fishing trip. But the whole scene is also an entertainment such as one might find in the circus with some of the language used reminding the reader of horses and horsemanship. An extremely difficult to find print this example has pin holes and some stains in margins. Some prints were sometimes pinned up on walls during poetry readings and then recovered for reuse later - this is one such print. Murray has this as 5.4.

ACROBATS. 1966. FINLAY'S FIFTH PRINT.

Nottingham: Tarasque Press, 1966 53.5 x 44.5cm, blue and red on white screenprint. One of Finlay's most important prints - the letters of the word acrobat are spaced out and repeated so that the individual parts of the word "tumble" by being read in all directions. A VG copy framed in wood and glass. Circa 350 printed. Finlay prints Nr: 4.66.2.

SEA POPPY 1. (FISHING BOAT LETTERS AND NUMBERS). 1966.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1966 56 x 43cm, 2pp. red on blue on white paper - a circular design made up of fishing boat numbers typographically set by Alistair Cant on Finlay's instruction. The pattern creates both a planet or the movement in the stars as they appear to spin around the boat as night passes. Stars for boats are essential to allow passage - until modern methods of navigation they were the sailor's only orientation. The pattern creates both a schematic planet or the perceived circular movement in the stars as they appear to spin around the boat as night passes. Stars for sailors are essential to life - until modern methods of navigation they were the only orientation available to the crew and captain of a ship. This is the first of two large prints with a similar intent - Sea Poppy 2 being in 1968 - the other uses the the names of the boats. The title Sea Poppy refers to the yellow hornpoppy which only grows on sea shores - again a clear nautical reference. This design and others like it was used by Finlay in different formats including wall works, object multiples, printed posters and cards - but this printed version uses colours that are hard to see against each other - given the text is more readable in the other formats of this work it is tempting to suggest that the colour clash here was a mistake although some psychedelic designs of the late 60s did deliberately set up such colour clashes.

STAR/STEER. 1966. FINLAY'S SIXTH EVER POEM/PRINT.

Nottingham: Tarasque Press, 1966 57 x 44.5cm, silver on grey silkscreen print. Finlay's sixth ever poem/print - here the word STAR is repeated in a pattern resembling the way a boat weaves home in a zigzag manner and with the font size and spacing varying - the last word in the pattern is the word STEER - which gives the clue to the viewer that it is a journey that is being gazed at. Obviously stars for many centuries were the most important guide to direction - something that Finlay has used as a regular theme in his work from his earliest Scots traditional poems to his first ever concrete poem (see our listings elsewhere on this site). VG+.

SUMMER POEM. 1967.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967 58.5 x 57.5cm, blue and red/brown silkscreen on white paper. The text which reflects shop store posters is visually over written by a white rhythmic line (in fact a proofreader's correction) which looks like a row of yacht sales. Bel at the bottom of the print is the correction to be inserted - the word "sails". A joke on one level (visual pun) but also a seascape with boats on it (the blue background being the water). Murray 5.8.

AJAR. 1967.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967 57 x 44.5cm, black silkscreen on gold thin paper. A concrete poem where the word "ajar" is repeated several times in a vertical column. Because of the repetition of the same letters "wedge shapes" can be left in the text and the words still read easily diagonally - hence reflecting the angles of an item being "ajar".Finlay's choice of paper was perhaps a mistake here as it is poor quality and many copies we have seen have the same fault as here - an ugly diagonal crease as the paper is brittle and always seems to us to be wrapping paper that could be better used for wrapping than print. Murray 5.9.

LA BELLE HOLLANDAISE. 1967.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1967 58 x 43cm, pink and black silkscreen. Concrete poem - one of the earliest Finlay prints. The work is one of a number where Finlay is fascinated by the patches to be found on sails (of both boats and windmills) and also references in its title Picasso's early career portrait of a strapping naked young Dutch woman. The image suggests that one should read the symbol and the word as "Crosspatch" - which is someone easily made upset which strangely one would not take from the semi-smiling woman in the Picasso portrait. But then an unmended sail of either a windmill or a boat would cause the sails to misbehave. The design was created from Finlay's instructions by Herbert Rosenthal. Murray 5.10

SEAMS. 1969.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1969 43.5 x 56.3cm, dark blue on white silkscreen print. The word SEAMS descends repeated vertically but there is a space between the SEA and MS. A concrete poem - the space between the parts of the word create a form of negative seam where the two parts of the word are joined. Additionally the first part of the word SEA places this work as a maritime piece - and the splitting of the word is much like the way water is parted by a vessel passing through. Further MS is often an abbreviation of manuscript - and this piece of paper might be seen as such a document. Like much of Finlay this is a deceptively simple looking construction but on consideration is much much more than just a visual pun.The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

EVENING WILL COME THEY WILL SEW THE BLUE SAIL. 1970. FIRST EDITION.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1970 70 x 82cm, full colour offset lithograph with the title text.The following comes from an unpublished book by Paul Robertson who created this collection: "I want to give another example of a work that requires background knowledge to be well understood. It is a work by Ian Hamilton Finlay - a Scottish artist who once told me that he was not really an artist but rather a poet. Indeed Finlay was originally universally identified as a poet creating early books from 1958 onwards which contained poems which would be easily be recognised as following traditional structures albeit written in lowland Scots but by 1963 Finlay was beginning to experiment with concrete or visual poetry forms - the placing of the words on the page having meaning as much as the syntax or choice of the words. Around the same time Finlay (who had always made wooden toys and small boats) began to use his poems as the starting point for sculptural works, prints and unique installations directly in the landscape. In 1966 Finlay, along with his then wife Susan, purchased a former farm and a thirty plus year project to sculpt the land into a major artistic garden (or perhaps better thought of as a multi-acre sculpture) was begun. I first visited Little Sparta (the name Finlay eventually gave to the gardens after initially retaining the farm name of Stoneypath) in the 1990s and Finlay was there wearing an old Glasgow Rangers jacket and drinking tea out of a large mug. He was a little reticent to talk art - but I was a collector of the artist-poet's works so I pushed him a little. I had found a wooden carving in a grassy area behind his cottage and recognised it by the text found beneath a relief of a ship. The text said “Evening will come. They will sew the blue sail.” I recognised that text from one of Finlay’s best known prints - an entirely typographic work printed white on blue in a long vertical rectangle. The white text is printed so that no word is longer than four letters (by the use of hyphenation) and each line is offset from each other such that as one reads down the artwork the text seems to zig-zag. I realised the wooden sculpture I had found was the first ever artwork by Finlay utilising that text and as such was an important historical source for the work which was later recreated in different formats. The wood was rotting and I suggested to Finlay that he should really bring the sculpture back into the house (or put it in the mini-art gallery Finlay had created which he referred to in his classicist manner as The Temple). Finlay did not skip a beat and simply said to me: “No. Let it return to the earth.” That acceptance of decay and the inescapable fact that everything will ultimately return to earth was more than just a lazy retort to my concern for the future understanding of Finlay’s work. it was entirely appropriate for a work which at its very core is a momento mori: a classical reminder of man’s limited lifespan on this earth. The entire work is imbued with the same meaning as Yoko Ono’s brief staring into a burning match in the dark. The print version of “Evening will come. They will sew the blue sail.” is a remarkable work and one which has multiple and deep meanings. Finlay was always fascinated by the Scottish fishing communities. It can be surmised from his work that he saw a simpler, smaller mostly rural community as some purer way of living although this complex intellectual also defined other characteristics and motifs from that sea-centric way of life. When one considers the bald text of “Evening will come. They will sew the blue sail.” the first meaning of the work is a simple description of how at night after the boats had returned, the sails were repaired by the community. That is straight-forward and a tad romantic - suggesting an almost idyllic honouring of decent honest labour. There are other meanings to the text however - the first is a metaphor for the cycle of day and night - the blue sky here is the sail and at the end of the night is disappeared, presumably to be ‘repaired’ to return the next day as perfectly as twenty-four hours before. The third meaning is about the return of the boats to harbour and one has to look to another of Finlay’s works to see the clue that reveals this meaning. “The Little Seamstress” is another print which Finlay made in conjunction with Richard Demarco (one of the poets earliest collaborators, Finlay usually worked with skilled artisans and other artists to create his works - the poetic concept being more important to Finlay than artisan activity on his on behalf). “The Little Seamstress” (1970) was created in the same year as “Evening will come.” and shows a fishing boat returning to port, as was typical, using its on-board engine to propel itself homeward. The title of the print can be read as a name of the fishing boat itself but the secondary meaning can be seen as the white flecks of waves created on the blue sea behind the boat look like white cotton on a blue cloth. This is the reference in “Evening will come.” - the boat returning home and the "put put" of white foam on the blue sea. That last meaning is also reflected in the typography and the placing of the white words (and parts of hyphenated words) on a blue background - but more than just the beauty of the particular part-italic font employed on a strong blue colour is the subtle off-setting of each line where the zig-zagging of the words is a reminder of the way no boat tends to sail in a straight line - it is a direct visual representation of the tacking of a sail boat. One might think that is enough - but no Finlay has one more layer of disguised meaning in the work and this in particular makes his remark to me “Let it return to the earth” particularly poignant. The work is about death and how such an inescapable fact of non-life is treated in fishing villages where a shroud is sometimes sewn from a sail with the dead fisherman (usually male) inside before being buried or given to the ocean. That is clear from the text but on a more metaphysical level the text “Evening will come. They will sew the blue sail.” is a momento mori - a classical reference to remind us to live life as fully as we may for it will end one day. I have had a copy of this Finlay work in my living room for the last twenty years and I think it a masterpiece. I will keep it on display in my home until I die. Finlay in nine words has given us a universe of deep contemplation. One cannot find a better work that while seeming simple and simultaneously , much like Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled (Perfect Lovers), perplexing." Text copyright - Paul Robertson. 2014.

A FULL-RIGGED SHIP, IN THE MANNER OF FUSELI. 1971. ONE OF 300 SIGNED AND NUMBERED PRINTS IN FOLDER.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971 25.5 x 20.5cm, 6pp white folder with colophon. Laid in is an original lithograph of 'A Full-Rigged Ship in the manner of Fuseli. The Archangel of Archangel' which is drawn as a concrete and visual poem. The ascending lines for the word Archangel are curved upwards (the florid styling being reminiscent of some of Henry Fuseli's work although not all). The owrd becomes the ship itself.This copy is signed and numbered by Finlay on the cover as part of the limited edition of 300 copies. Murray 5.28

SAILING BARGE REDWING. 1971. ONE OF 300 SIGNED COPIES.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1971 33 x 31.5cm, red and green on white silkscreen in folder. A boat on the water is reflected from below the hull to become a visual pun of a model airplane. In the title, Finlay references the redwing - a winter bird in the UK and is the smallest true thrush which has red flashes on its wings.This was the first ever Finlay work purchased by Paul Robertson for this collection. The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition. The signed folder is also retained in the frame. Only 300 copies were made.

LUFTWAFFE: AFTER MONDRIAN. 1976.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976 41 x 53cm lithograph in two colours on paper - German war plane markings are arranged as if by the Dutch master. Mondrian's decision to limit his formal vocabulary to the three primary colours, the three primary values and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical) meant he created works that looked like grids. In particular this work reflects the drawn composition Jetty and Ocean from 1915 where in b/w Mondrian creates a work with many crosses. One of 350 released. Very slight crease bottom right but overall VG.

BATTLE OF MIDWAY 2. 1977.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977 56.5 × 68.7cm, two colour silkscreen with typography by Ron Costley from Finlay's instruction. The text is in both English and Latin - and the former says "Here perished Akagi Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Yorktown. The seahives consumed with their most choice swarms by their own flame-bearing honey."This is a second work of a pair of prints based on the American fleet's victory over the Japanese at the battle of Midway on the Fourth of June 1942. The victory left many of the Japanese aircraft with nowhere to land once their carriers were destroyed and they had to ditch in the water and most drowned. One of 300 copies made - this has a companion print Battle of Midway I (see separate listing) These are very large prints - possibly the largest Finlay had ever made. A bit worn at the edges but overall VG.

BOIS D'AMOUR. ('LE TALISMAN'). 1978.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1978 20 x 16.4cm, printed black on cream outer folder content of a single 20 x 16.4cm offset lithograph on light blue paper. The folder has "BOIS D'AMOUR. ('LE TALISMAN')" printed at the top and the inner sheet has "Lavender Water" printed at the bottom. On the back of the folder there is also the mention that the work is "An "Homage to Sérusier." Paul Sérusier was an abstract French painter (who was a pioneer of abstract art and an inspiration for the avant-garde Nabis movement who Finlay honours elsewhere in his works) painted a major work known as "Le Talisman" in 1888 that showed a bridge crossing into a wood. That painting is usually regarded as the first of the Nabis works. The French title of the work is "Paysage au Bois d'Amour" - hence the title of Finlay's work here. The words Lavender Water found on the second sheet are not only associated with an over-sweet smelling perfume much beloved of old ladies but is also the colour of the water under the bridge in the Serusier painting. This was the second of Finlay's "colour paper" works (a term we have coined to categorise these innovative works) after his earlier L'embarquement pour l'Ile de Cychere of 1975. VG+>

SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS. 1980.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press. 1980 66 x 93.5cm, blue on white offset lithographic print showing a sketch of a nuclear submarine by John Borg Manduca with the title text "SUB" and the Latin legend "SUB SPECIE AETERNITATIS" which is a Latin phrase that means something is universally and for all time true ("from the perspective of the eternal"). Nuclear subs are regarded as being deadly partially because they can stay underwater indefinitely and there is certainly a beauty to their slick form. one slight crease upper right else VG+. Ref.: Drukgrafik 4.80.2.

LES CIMETIERES DES NAUFRAGES. 1981.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1981 20.3 × 16.5cm, black on lilac printed outer folder with title content of a single 20.3 × 16.5cm offset lithograph printed black on blue laid paper with the word "SYMBOLISME". One of Finlay's innovative colour paper prints (in fact the third such published) where the medium utilised is as important as the printed words, this is a visual poem in some sense that the paper colour of the inner sheet is associated with the out of fashion painterly movement as well as the sea. Moreover - Finlay emphasises a parallel between the memorial graves of dead sailors that have never been found and the death of symbolism which often used death and water as major themes. Later a public work based on this metaphor was built in the the medieval garden of the Musée de l'Oeuvre Notre-Dame.

THE MONTHS. RECEIPTS FOR THE WORKING OF SAMPLERS. 1982.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1982 61.0 x 30.5cm, brown and black on white offset lithograph. A month by month textual proposal for twelve embroidery "samplers" - each here a description of a tank in camouflage (relevant to the date) and a note of its divisional symbol - which is the relevant astrological sign for the date. A reminder of death lurking amongst the beauty of nature (hence a momento mori). VG+.

SAINT-JUST VIGILANTES. SECRET: 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 22.2 x 20cm, full colour offset lithograph showing what purports to be a secret cachet between the members of the Saint)Just Vigilantes (the support group who helped Finlay resist the attempts by Strathclyde Region to seize artworks by Finlay in lieu of what they claimed was unpaid rates for the Temple at Little Sparta). The supposed message cannot be seen as the paper itself has a camouflage pattern. (In this joke Finlay preempts a current common internet meme that camouflage makes things invisible, but we digress.) A very good + example which does not have any lemon juice or any other secret message added to it as far as we know.

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA VOI CH'ENTRATE! c. 1983?

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (c. 1983) 38.5 x 50.5cm, red on white offset lithograph. The quotation "LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA VOI CH'ENTRATE!" is from Dante's Inferno and is the famous line over the entry to hell: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter!". As such it is a warning - and here also Finlay has appropriated it as a threat to Strathclyde Region's lackies and even Sheriff Officers during the Little Sparta War. One of a number of campaigning placards reproduced as poster prints. The warning is intensified by the use of a bright red. We cannot quite date this work but it is likely to be c. 1983.

CHANT FOR A REGIONAL OCCASION. 2000 VOICES. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 14.2 x 15cm, red on white folding offset lithograph. There are 16 panels ten of each with a three word poem - for example beastbrute or lutelyreluger The trios of words are all alliterative within a panel beginning with the same letter. They all also end with a weapon or a reference to fascism. The "chant" is encouraged to be repeated when one gets to the end. The "Region" here is Strathclyde Region and this is another of Finlay's acidic attacks on their bureaucracy.VG+ condition.This is categorised as a print by both Murray and the Wild Hawthorn Press but it really is a folding card but for ease we have left it here in the prints section of this online collection.

REAP THE SAC FACTION. 1985.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 27.9 x 18.4cm, red and black offset lithograph which lists the names of those on the governing body of the Scottish Arts Council and with a sythe calling on the body to be "reaped" and people to join the Saint-Just Vigilantes. Finlay felt the SAC had not supported his fight with Strathclyde Region. Arts bodies who attempt to oversee art are always a stupid idea - and today nothing much has changed with the replacement of the SAC with Creative Scotland.

PROCLAMATION (RED). 1985.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985 42 x 29.5cm, red on white satin paper offset lithograph with a text in French after Saint-Just and his comrade in arms Lebas who had been sent to Stranbourg in 1794 by Robesprierre to end local disputes in the city that had come to violence. This was part of a general move on the Committe for Public Safety to rein in the actions of the many Representatives on Mission who had overstepped their perceived powers and gain central control of the country. The proclamation (on 25 Brumaire, 1794) tells citizens of Strasbourg to stop acting like Germans as their hearts are French. By accounts Saint-Just and Labas took the side of the city merchants over that of agitators from outside (presumably regarded as more "German") and capturing the latter's leader Euloge Schneider sent him back to Paris to meet the guillotine (again: as they had publicly displayed him tied up in front of a the local version for a day) but now for the last time .Brumaire was the second month of the revolutionary calendar and its symbol was fog. Ultimately the Coup of 18 Brumaire brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France and in the view of most historians ended the French Revolution. There were two colour variants of this print - this is the red one, the blue is also in this collection.

PROCLAMATION (BLUE). 1985.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985 42 x 29.5cm, red on white satin paper offset lithograph with a text in French after Saint-Just and his comrade in arms Lebas who had been sent to Stranbourg in 1794 by Robesprierre to end local disputes in the city that had come to violence. This was part of a general move on the Committe for Public Safety to rein in the actions of the many Representatives on Mission who had overstepped their perceived powers and gain central control of the country. The proclamation (on 25 Brumaire, 1794) tells citizens of Strasbourg to stop acting like Germans as their hearts are French. By accounts Saint-Just and Labas took the side of the city merchants over that of agitators from outside (presumably regarded as more "German") and capturing the latter's leader Euloge Schneider sent him back to Paris to meet the guillotine (again: as they had publicly displayed him tied up in front of a the local version for a day) but now for the last time .Brumaire was the second month of the revolutionary calendar and its symbol was fog. Ultimately the Coup of 18 Brumaire brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France and in the view of most historians ended the French Revolution. There were two colour variants of this print - this is the blue one, the red is also in this collection.

URN. (GARDEN POEM). 1986. FOLDING PRINT.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 81 x 21.8cm, black on green folding offset lithograph. A concrete poem with the repeat words urn and column placed one above the other (with column broken up into COL and UMN) to create the vision of a column topped with an urn. One of the more simple of such poems but there is an additional element of the the strong vertical lines of the ascenders in the font to reflect the vertical lines one might get in a classical column.

TWILIGHT. 1986.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986 20.5 x 17.5cm, printed dark outer folder content of a single 20.5 x 17.5cm offset lithograph. The folder has the word "TWILIGHT" printed at the top and inner sheet has "TWILIGHT" above the word "remembers" (in lower case as here). The blue paper references the deepening gloom of the passage of the day into night. But still twilight remembers day in the sense that some light is still to be found before darkness falls in its entirely. VG+.

CHANSON D'AUTOMNE. 1986.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986 23 × 18cm, black on grey printed outer folded with title content of two 23 × 18cm offset lithographs. The first is printed on light mustard-yellow paper and has the sole text "glades of sunlight" at the top and the second "forests of cloud" at the bottom printed on brown thick paper.One of Finlay's innovative colour paper prints where the medium utilised is as important as the words found upon the page. This is a visual poem in some sense that the paper colours suggest that scene of sunlight breaking though the fog (the bright yellow paper is placed in front of the dark brown sheet in the folder and is more dominant to the eye.This is one of only 150 such prints printed. VG+.

THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 76 x 58cm, black on white silkscreen print. The line drawing of a guillotine blade has Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum "THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE" on it. It is hard to think of a medium having a more sharp message than this agency of death. Black is used as a colour reference to death. The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

FOUNTAIN. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 22.4 x 17.1cm. light blue on white offset lithograph in folder. A concrete poem with the words 'Liberty Equality Fraternity / little fountain in three colours' in the shape of both a fountain and a crown. One of 300 printed. VG.

WILLOW. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 41.5 x 20.8cm, green on white offset lithograph print with a text that descends vertically - "Tree leaved with mists". The tree here is a willow and FInlay is not only reflecting the way the leaves fall vertically from that tree but also the similarity of the diffuse leave shapes to mist. SLight former creases else VG.

FROM THE NABIS SERIES: DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 21.2 x 19.5cm, printed black on dark grey outer folder content of a single 21.2 x 19.5cm offset lithograph on bright red paper paper. The folder has " DER UNTERGANG DES ABENDLANDES" printed at the top which is a reference to Oswald Spengler's theoretical history "Decline of the West" from 1918. The inner sheet has "effulgence of the robin" printed black in the middle of the sheet all in lower case. Spengler (a controversial historian) can clearly be seen as a classicist and it is tempting to think Finlay is approving here of his belief in the higher aesthetics of an earlier age. Additionally the phrase" From the Nabis Series" references the short lived Nabis group of painters -Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul Sérusier. symbolists who took their name from the Hebrew nebiim (which means prophet). The bright red of the insert on one level references the bright colours of the group but also may well be seen as the classical a symbol of redemption. VG+>

POIRE/LOIRE. FROM THE NABIS SERIES. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986 26.4 x 12.2cm, unprinted white outer folder content of two 26.4 x 12.2cm offset lithographs. The first sheet is printed on russet brown paper and has the sole text "POIRE" at the top and the second has "LOIRE" also at the top but this time printed on bright blue paper.One of Finlay's innovative colour paper prints where the medium utilised is as important as the words found upon the page. The pairing of the rhyming works Poire and Loire identify this as French themed work - Loire Valley and river being to the south West of Paris and Poire (pair) being a long associated fruit from this region (Poire Tapees being a long loved desert from the Vendee).The colour reflect the colours of ripe pairs and the bright sunny sky of the area. As an aside the Loire Valley was part of the Vendee uprising of 1793 which rocked the French revolution until it was brutally put down by Republican army troops - and Finlay made many works about those events although it is not quite clear if this work relates to those events. VG+.

DELEGATION WITH RESPONSE EQUALS DEMONSTRATION. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.7 × 21m, red on white offset lithograph. The print has four statements on it - dogmatically - DELEGATION WITH RESPONSE EQUALS DEMONSTRATION/WHEN WORDS HAVE FAILED THERE IS A STATE OF WAR/EVENTS ARE A DISCOURSE /FIGHT THE INTELLECTUAL TERRORISTS CANCEL PICABIA NOW!". Part of Finlay's continuing campaign against Strathclyde Region over a Rates dispute.

A LITTLE SPARTAN GUIDE TO THE NATIONAL TRUST. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 29.6 x 21cm, green on light brown offset lithograph with a text in which Finlay delights in pointing out mistakes and the absurd statements made by Wim Meulenkamp and Gwyn Headley in the Book "Folies, A National Trust Guide". The book had included Little Sparta in its listings - something which offended Finlay to his roots.This was just one of his acts of revenge against the authors that emerged in many texts and works of art. VG+.

1794. KNITTING WAS A RESERVED OCCUPATION. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.There was a companion print to this one with the text in French issued at the same time - see our next listing here.

1794. LE TRICOT ETAIT UNE OCCUPATION RESERVE. 1987.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987 20.9 x 29.6cm, red and black offset lithograph on paper. A typographic print with the title text reminding of how women supposedly knitted while watching the executions on the guillotine. Apocryphally they would drop a stitch as each head fell into the basket. Finlay uses this statement to have a go at Catherine Millet for her attacks on him in the Art Press, Paris - comparing her to the ghouls beside the scaffold. VG example.There was a companion print to this one with the text in English issued at the same time - see our previous listing here.

PARISIANS SPOIL THE FRENCH. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 42 X 30cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Parisians Spoil the French" being a remark that might well be not only a glib comment on Paris and its dwellers (with two possible meanings - one posItive, the other less so) but also a reference to the way Paris dominated the country during the years of the French revolution (and had to put down several violent uprisings as a result).

DON'T PUT ALL YOUR HEADS IN ONE BASKET. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK ON WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Don't Put All Your Heads in One Basket". A reworking of "don't put all your eggs in one basket" but referencing the heads severed from the victims of the Terror. Perhaps revolutionaries should be more careful in how they treat their opponents lest like Robespierre you end up in the same basket.

SPARE THE BLADE AND SPOIL THE FACTIONS. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Spare the Blade and Spoil the Factions". A suggestion that one should be decisive in one's oppression of your opponents. VG.

DON'T CAST YOUR REVOLUTIONS BEFORE SWINE. PICABIA SERIES. BLACK OF WHITE VARIATION. 1988.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1988 30 x 42cm, black on white offset lithograph. One print from a number which Finlay denoted as the Picabia Series (there were red on white versions of these works also). Each of the series is a witty reworking of a well known saying - here "Don't Cast your Revolutions before Swine". A revolution, this poster suggests , should not be wasted on an unwilling or undeserving populus. VG.

OH PARISIANS. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text is a lengthy quotation from Marat; the poisonous revolutionary journalist who condemned many to death via his pen during the Terror. The text is amusingly critical of the Parisian character - Marat might have been a bastard but he was a talented bastard. This print was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - and by extension is a criticism of Strathclyde Region who had raided Finlay's farm and "stolen" under warrant sale various works from the Temple in a dispute over rates. VG.

WHAT A GOVERNMENT IT IS, 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 42 x 30cm, red and black on white offset lithograph on satin paper. The text: "Planting trees of Liberty on the scaffold and placing death's scythe in the hands of the law." This was produced as a poster for the Saint-Just Vigilantes - is a epigram by Finlay on the unjust practices of the French revolution's Terror but a text that clearly Finlay felt could be equally applied to Strathclyde Region with whom he was in dispute over the rating of the Little Sparta Temple building - which they claimed was an art gallery, and Finlay claimed was a religious building. VG.

L'AMI DU PEUPLE. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 42. 29.7cm, full colour on white paper offset lithograph which parodies a typical cover of the somewhat bizarre Scottish publication - the People's Friend much beloved of grannies and well-wearing middle class knitters. The joke here is that Marat's poisonous journal that condemned indirectly so many people to the guillotine was called "L'ami du peuple". One of Finlay's more amusing works. Slight browning or possible minor foxing due to paper else VG.

TWO STILL LIVES. 1989.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989 28.6 x 34.5cm, black on white lithograph with two texts describing paintings. Folded sheet that opens to 28.6 x 70cm. The first - A guitar, a wine bottle, the bust of a goddess - we believe is a work by Picasso, the second text an updating of the first - A wine bottle, a pair of binoculars, a gun - is possibly a description of a Saint-Just vigilante waiting for agents of Strathclyde Region to arrive (in reality they did not have guns apart from perhaps a water pistol). The print was issued during the exhibition Nature Morte at the Galerie Philimene Magers in Koln. VG+.

IAN HAMILTON FINLAY & THE WILD HAWTHORN PRESS 1958 - 1991. 1991. TATE GALLERY POSTER.

Liverpool: Tate Gallery, 1991 60 x 42cm, 1pp offset exhibition poster with a reproduction of Finlay's Evening Will Come They Will Sew The Blue Sail on the front in blue on white and gallery details. VG+.

AFFICHE, TOO MANY LAWS TOO FEW EXAMPLES. 1993. SIGNED & NUMBERED FROM EDITION OF 300.

n.p.: n.p., n.d. (1993) 60 x 82cm, light blue on white silkscreen. The image of a sundial is joined with text in Greek and English - Saint-Just's most famous dictum "too many laws, too few examples". Like many quotations the meaning out of context can be changed - Saint-Just was referring to deaths in the terror, but a modern take might be that we need better people or better behaviour (Virtue perhaps)? A sundial is a good example - once placed and checked for accuracy, its behaviour is true and unvaried. it is a good example.One of 300 signed and numbered examples (the signature is in pencil, the numbering in ink.

HERACLITIAN VARIATIONS. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994 18.9 x 29.8cm, red and black on cream offset lithograph. The text "YOU CANNOT STEP INTO THE SAME RIVER/REVOLUTION TWICE" allows two readings of the statement - first the famous Hereclitian statement comparing the flow of a river that isnever is the same with any point in history . And then FInlay's bold assertion here that that is also true of all revolutions. . VG+.

OLSEN'S FISHERMAN'S NAUTICAL ALPHABET. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994 29.6 x 21cm, blue on white offset lithograph with a reworking of the universal A - Z alphabet - but the letters are all (except Q) replaced by boat port registration letter codes. VG+.

DIE HEIMAT IST NICHT DAS LAND ... / THE NATIVE LAND IS NOT ... 1995.

N.p.: n.p. , 1995 52 x 80cm, silver on grey silkscreen on card with typography by Andrew White after a quotation by Louis Antoine Saint-Just. This is an unsigned example of the print aside from the numbered edition. VG.

A CHEQUE FROM GRAHAM RICH. 1998

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1998 14 x 21.5cm, black on cream offset backing sheet with a 7.2 x 15.2cm, tipped on full colour reproduction of a cheque from Graham Rich but with the latter's signature replaced with one of his small stylised ship drawings. This was a gift from Finlay to his friend Rich which followed a conversation about :"signatures" between the two artists. Limitation not known - probably 350. VG+. JOINT: 30 x 21cm, 1pp colour inkjet reproducing Finlay's letter to Rich in which he included the print. Folded for mailing.