THE PRESENT ORDER IS THE DISORDER OF THE FUTURE. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
18.4 × 20.3cm, 1pp, black and red on white card. The quotation from Saint-Just is presented as if they had been carved in separate stones and there is an instruction "Cut around outlines. Arrange words in order." - reflecting the way that the quotation suggests change is inevitable and that causality requires some degree of chaos. The drawing is by Nicholas Sloan.
This work is also found at Little Sparta as one of the largest of the installations to be found there - with the text actually carved into large stones on moorland. VG+.

A CORNER OF THE GARDEN TEMPLE (AKA LIBERTY, TERROR & VIRTUE). 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
13.3 x 15.6cm, 1pp black and red on white artist's card with a photograph by John Stathatos. The image is of the table in the Garden Temple on the day Strathclyde Region removed candlesticks TERROT and VIRTUE from Finlay Garden Temple as a poinding ac tion to regain the money they claimed they were owed for unpaid rates. the posed photograph also has a copy of a sheet entitled "La liberte ou la mort 1989" - a study of the rhetoric of the French poet Roche. The title in MUrray's catalogue Raisonne is "LIBERTY, TERROR & VIRTUE" but that is perhaps not correct. VG+.

A FLUTE FOR SAINT-JUST. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
20.6 x 12.5cm, 1pp, black and blue on white card. The "flute" is created by the letters C and U in a repeating series of the words ICE and DUST in a vertical line such as the letters line up. Appended notes explain that Saint-Just owned an ivory flute and the words ICE and Dust come from contemporary revolutionary quotations. VG+.

ELAVAZIONE DEL TEMPIO DI GIARDINO A PICCOLA SPARTA CON IMPTOVIMENTI NUOVI. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 15.4 x 16.2cm, 1pp artist card with a drawing of the Temple of Apollo which was the disputed building in the dispute with Strathclyde Region. The facade has the carved text: "TO APOLLO/HIS MUSIC/HIS MISSILES/HIS MUSES". The drawing is by Nicholas Sloan. Murray renames this card "Temple of Apollo Facade" but the title should really be in Italian as per the legend on the card.VG+.

SHOCK TROPES FOR LITTLE SPARTA (ATTACK LETTER DART). 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
19.7 x 12.7cm (closed size), 4pp gatefold. A mail art work by Finlay which opens up to read "SHOCK TROPES FOR LITTLE SPARTA" - the literary equivalent of the blitzkrieg, "Tropes" replacing "Troops".
This example was mailed by Finlay to Graeme Murray his then gallerist, Franked and stamped but VG+.

UNTITLED (A COLUMN A DAY). 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983 20.5 x 10.4cm, 4pp (folding from the top). A cut-out drawing by Nicholas Sloan of a section of a tree trunk with an arrow piercing the wood allowing a three-dimensional paper sculpture to be made. The final image reminds one of Saint Sebastian martyred because of his supposed defence of early Christians. The attacks on Finlay at this time probably made him feel like a martyr but this image could also be read as a symbol of the garden of Little Spartas as being under attack. The title of the card is not included and the title here we have taken from Murray's catalogue raisonne although there is no reason to be sure it is correct. VG+.

THE LITTLE SPARTAN WAR. 2 PROPAGANDA CARDS. TWO PROSPECTS, TEMPLE OF APOLLO. 1983.

Leeds: New Arcadians Press, 1983
11 x 16cm, printed purple envelope with title and publication information content of two cards.
The first card is:
2 PROSPECTS.
8.3 x 10.9cm 6pp (asymmetric folds). A folding card which has two drawings by Ian Gardner which reflect the shape of each other. The first is a slope on a battle ship's deck, the second a slope on a hill with a house and a tree. The "elevation" of the guns to the deck and the "elevation" of the house to the tree are mathematically compared to each other in the diagram.
Two quotes one by Horace Walpole and the other John James note the evolution of "Ha! Ha!s" in gardening - places where the ground drops away suddenly and allows unimpeded access to the grounds. On a battleship the slope in front of a gun allows the missile to be projected without opposition.
The card may be a typical Finlay work bringing attention to a comparison or metaphor between two things but given the on-going feeling of conflict and being under attack at Little Sparta at this time - the card is also a threat to those attacking the elevations of the grounds.

The second card is
THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO
10 x 13cm, 2pp and a duotone photograph of the the Temple of Apollo (aka Garden Temple) - the building that Finlay disputed the rating value of and the heart of the dispute between him and the Regional Council.
Both cards are VG+.
Murray's flawed catalogue raisonne only notes the first card and does not note it was part of a pair or that it was published by someone other that the Wild Hawthorn Press. it appears these cards were published at the same time as an exhibition at Southhampton Art Gallery.

TWO TRANSLATIONS. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
20.5 x 15.5cm , 1pp black on white card. The typographically designed card has two "translations:" which are poetic rather than accurate:
Ferme ornee
armoured farm
and
Arroisir
evening arrow
Hence 'ornate farm' becomes an 'armoured farm' and "watering can" becomes "evening arrow" both of which suggest the militarisation of the grounds. A reaction to Finlay's worries about his enemies coming to Little Sparta and stealing his assets as had happened in March of the same year as publication. VG+.

LEXICAL DIVERSIONS. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
15.2 x 15.4cm , 1pp black on white artist's card. A text by Geoffrey Scott discusses Finlay's metaphors on architectural elements (from Lexical Diversions of Ian Hamilton Finlay) alongside a drawing of a Corinthian capital by Mark Stewart. VG+.

A DRYAD DISCOVERED. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
20 x 8.8cm, 4pp. A folding card with Finlay's poem overprinted on a camouflage pattern in green on light brown. The poem links various body parts and tree parts to others. The first half of the poem link the head to the fingers via other parts, the second the roots to the blossom on the twigs. The final line is "and fruit" which can be allocated both to the hand and the twig (a human can hold fruit). On the back of the card Trump cites both a book on Physiognomy - the habit of judging traits from structures and also Strathclyde Region's Schedule of Poinding Assessments Payable to the Strathclyde Regional Council (1982) in which Finlay would have been included because of his dispute over the Garden temple.
A dryad of course is a mythical spirit that is found within a tree - the metaphor of "tree - human" here is hinted at as being enough to allow judgement about that person, tree or even farm.

HOMAGE A DAVID (2). 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1983
20.7 x 10cm, 1pp. A cut-out drawing by Ron Costley of a republican army drum such as played by the martyred Viala. The boy's name is incorporated into the diagonal patterning around the sides - the name having letter shapes that match that well. VIVE LA REPUBLIQUIE!

DOVECOTE. 1983.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1984
20.9 x 14.8cm, 1pp. Two drawings of the dovecote at Little Sparta (by John Tetley) are shown without any text or explanation or even attribution. The second drawing is a detail of the bullding that appears to show a gun barrel sticking out of the double doors of the former dovecot. In truth the drawing isn't very clear in close up and this work seems somewhat out of place with Finlay's usual aesthetic apart from the general feeling that Little Sparta needed to be militarised after the initial raid by Strathclyde region. IN some sense the building has become an immobile tank.
Murray places this card at 1984 but out of order in his list (it is in the middle of a number of other cards published in 1983) and another version of the image with a drawing by Mark Stewart was also printed in mid 1983.. The exact date cannot be ascertained for sure so we have allocated this to 1983 for the proceeding reasons. VG+.

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