Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
13.6 x 8.2cm, 1pp Artist's card presenting a faux menu of Danton, followed by Hebert then Clooz followed by Meulenkamp and Headley. The first three names in order were guillotined under the orders of the Committee for Public Safety, the last two only in Finlay's revengeful fantasies.VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
11.8 x 14.1cm, 2pp card. An appropriated drawing of a guillotine is matched with a text which shows only part of the name Headley (---LEY) as if the name of the main author of the National Trust publication "Follies" has been decapitated (the additional joke being that the part removed is the HEAD). Underneath the first there is the French text - "Je perds une tete" and under the guillotine "J'en trouve une" - I have lost a head/I find one. VG+
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1987)
17 x 13cm, 1pp artist's card with a photograph of a sticker having been stuck to the outside spine of the Follies A National Trust Guide by Gwyn Headley and Wim Meulenkamp which Finlay had condemned for misrepresenting Little Sparta as a "folly". The sticker reads "Censored by the Saint-Just Vigilantes".
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
14 x 12.5cm, 2pp artist's card released on the fourth anniversary of the First Battle of Little Sparta. The card quotes Jules Claretie reporting on Louis XVI writing "Nothing" in his diary on the night of the storming of the Bastille (this is unfair on Louis as the reference to "nothing" was actually his recording of a failure to catch anything while hunting but the story is usually told as to prove he was out of touch). Louis was indeed out of touch (he went hunting on that day after all) but that diary entry was not evidence of it but Finlay uses the quote to taunt his enemies' failure to storm the Temple Gallery on that day four years earlier thanks to the actions of the Saint-Just Vigilantes. This card is hand address to Peter Townsend, Editor of Art Monthly by Finlay. VG+
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
11 x 8cm, 1pp Artist's card attacking the Follies book published by the National Trust:
ACCORDING TO THE NATIONAL TRUST
The certifiable build the abbeys
The sane build the tearooms.
National Trust supported buildings in the UK almost always have a tea-room added to them. On the reverse there is a post-it note on which Finlay has written "A Follies War Card". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
15 x 10cm, 1pp artist's card. The drawing of the guillotine with a head that has just been cut off with blood gushing everywhere has the name of Finlay's new found enemy Headley split in two on both sides of the killing machine. Below the drawing the phrase "Terror is the piety of the Revolution." Both the idea and texts had been used by Finlay before - the card Dialogue printed in the same year is essentially the same card. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12.5 x 14.9cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a typographic design attacking Gwynn Headley, Wim Meulenkamo and Waldemar Januszszack - identifying them as the entitled, bourgeois youth of the counter-revolution (in fact all were already middle aged so Finlay's barb was also a patronising insult) VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
13.5 x 10.1cm, 1pp artist's card printed red on white - the text attacking Wim Meulenkamp one of the co-authors of the Follies Guide which so insulted Finlay is in the shape of a windmill. amusing because of the use of Scots and alliteration else a bit meh. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
7.1 x 22.5cm, 1pp artist's card printed black on white - the text "The Enlightenment (for Andrew and Nicholas) is conjoined below with a second line "After decapitation the victims are lime washed" presumably to remove all trace of their bodies and existence. The Enlightenment of course was the period of expansion of liberal attitudes and knowledge based on reason which took place in both France and Scotland (and elsewhere) in the mid-18th century - hence it is inferred that the removal of Finlay's enemies from history would be a progressive move.
We have to admit not to know who the "Andrew and Nicholas" referred to on the card are VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8.5 × 17.3cm, 1pp artist's card printed red and black on white - the text is probably the most contentious of all cards produced by Finlay where he three times calls to "Repatriate Waldemar" while knowing full well that the critic of Polish heritage was born in Britain. The dominant text "When the world took to tolerance it took to crime" is a translation of the stone etched text in Piranesi's frontispiece to the Carceri (The Prisons) a set of etchings depicting fictitious massive subterranean prisons.
Waldemar Januszczack was the art critic of The Guardian and had attracted Finlay's unhappiness after a particularly scathing review. The sub title of this card (and others) is "Little Sparta: Sans cullottes against the Jeunesse doree" which is a neat proletarian dig at the middle class Januszczack.
It is fair to say Finlay could be too extreme in his responses to attacks and this period of the late 80s was a time when he felt particularly under siege and had some mental health issues relating to a form of claustrophobia where he could not leave his farm. Most of his attacks are acceptable if extremely biting but this card would have been better left unprinted.
This example is hand addressed by Finlay on the reverse to Claire Burns in Paris. A mailed example but still VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
8 x 14cm, 1pp artist's card printed red on white - the text a very blatant attack on Waldemar Januszczack the art critic of the liberal Guardian. The sub title is "Sans cullottes against the Jeunesse doree" which is a proletarian dig at the middle class Januszczack. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9.5 x 14cm, 1pp artist's card printed black on red - the text "JUSTICE FOR THE FAT STUPID KIDS" is referenced to a page of Follies. A National Trust Guide. We will return to this item once we can check the much disputed "guide" for the reference. VG+.
One the reverse of the card there is a small pink post-it note with the writing "Follies War card" in Finlay's own hand.
