A PROPOSAL FOR THE FURKA PASS 1987. 1987.
N.P. (Switzerland): Furkaart, 1987 10.5 x 15cm, 2pp postcard issued with a badly photoshopped photograph by Marco Schlbig of Finlay's proposal for the Furka Pass (a "signature" of F. Hodler etched into a found stone - thus "signing" the landscape). VG+. Scarce.
MR. GREENE AND THE WHITE BRIGANDS. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
156.5 x 11.7cm, 2pp card. Two quotations - the first from Cobban's History of Modern France which explains how the Great Fear during the French revolution was based on false reporting and a quote from an unidentified London newspaper that Jonathan Cape (who Finlay was at war with over the Follies book) were promoting rumours that were promoted by the Saint-Just Vigilantes group "a romantic Scottish nationalist group". Clearly the S-J Vigilantes were not per se nationalist (some may have been, others certainly were not) and Finlay here is pointing to the way Jonathan Cape tried to befuddle the argument by faking up stories. VG+
SAINT-JUST VIGILANTES CELEBRATE A DIRECT HIT…. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12.5 x 11.5cm, 2pp card. An appropriated photograph of German soldiers celebrating a direct hit from their artillery battery on a house is sub-captioned by Finlay "Saint-Just Vigilantes celebrate a direct hit on elements of the Headley and Meulenkamp Division of the National Trust". Finlay keeping up his attacks on the duo who offended him by mis-representing Little Sparta as a "Folly" in a book. Meulenkamp additionally used the controversy with Catherine Millet accusing Finlay of pro-Nazi sympathies to attack him again in a Dutch article. It is fair to assume that Finlay chose an image of German soldiers here as a provocation rather than to show any pro-fascist feelings. VG+
BROUNT. 1987
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
16.8 x 11.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of Greyfriars Bobby: the famous Edinburgh dog which has a statue commemorating its loyalty to its master near Greyfriars Kirk churchyard seemingly living on the grave he was buried in.
Brount was the name of Robespierre's faithful dog which he apparently loved and was left behind when he was guillotined. The parallel appealed to Finlay it seems. VG+.
HEAD OF WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of a sculpted head of the Guardian critic that Finlay used in the sculpture Three Heads (now in the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art) - the sculpture shows the three heads of Waldemar Januszczak, Gwyn Headley and Catherine Millet in baskets as if they had been guillotined. Finlay was not that forgiving a man in his middle age.
Interestingly the work went missing from the storage of the museum and had to be remade in 2013. VG+.
HEAD OF GWYN HEADLEY. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a photograph of a sculpted head of the author of Follies. A National Trust Guide which had angered Finlay for its description of Little Sparta. The head was later used in the sculpture Three Heads (now in the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art) - the sculpture shows the three heads of Waldemar Januszczak, Gwyn Headley and Catherine Millet in baskets as if they had been guillotined. Finlay was not that forgiving a man in his middle age.
Interestingly the work went missing from the storage of the museum and had to be remade in 2013. VG+.
LA TRICOTEUSE. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a none too flattering portrait of one of Finlay's enemies, Catherine Millet, and under neath the title "LA TRICOTEUSE". A tricoteuse was the nickname (a knitting woman) given to the rather bloodthirsty women next to the guillotine who supposedly knitted as the heads dropped. VG+.
A YOUNG BLADE. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
12 x 8.5cm, 1pp. Artist's card with a drawing of a bust of Saint-Just. The title has a double meaning - that of a dashing young man and also a reference to the fact that Saint-Just was regarded as the "Angel of Death" by many on the National Convention because of his announcements of those who were to be arrested and probably guillotined. A young blade indeed. VG+.
THE GARDEN IS OPEN. 1987.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
9 x 12.7cm, 2pp. Artist's card with a drawing of a fence with the gate replaced with a booby trap of a guillotine. The back of the card and a sign on the front declares The Garden is Open for members of the National Trust. Snarky as ever. VG+.
POPPY, N. THE PHRYGIAN FLOWER. 1987
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1987
10 x 10cm, 4pp artist's card with a reproduced painting of bunch of growing poppies. Phrygia was a part of heroic Greece but the Phrygain bonnet was accepted as a sign of French revolutionary zeal and worn by republicans. A note on the back of the card notes that the red of the hats often "transformed the streets of Paris into lanes of moving poppies." Painting by Jo Hincks. VG+.