Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991) 18.8 x 8.6cm, 2pp. Artist's card with a drawing of a guillotine on a platform above the text "A model of order even if set in a space filled with doubt". The killing machine is a perfect operator no matter where it is found. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1991) 3.1 x 14.7cm, 4pp artist's card (asymmetric fold) designed by Caroline Webb for Finlay with the French word ARBRE capped off a the front by an ornate letter M to create MARBRE which means mottled or marbled. The card refers to the silver birch (bouleau is French for Birch) and the way the bark can be of various colours. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1991) 11.6 x 14.6cm, 2pp. Artist's card which notes the names and dates of the two child martyrs of the French Revolution. The border around the names shows two drawings by Laurie Clark of a war drum and a child's toy horse on wheels - to remind the viewer how young the boys were when they died. VG+.
LAURIE CLARKLittle Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
9.9 x 8.2cm, 4pp. A painting which may well be a potato print beloved of young childen shows a blue and red pattern which could be seen as a paper crown worn at a Xmas dinner. Internal to the card Finlay notes:
Shepherds - Bath Towels
Angels - Sheets
and below "(Instructions for a school play)".
The painting therefore can be read as also displaying the bath towels (with patterns) for use to make costumes for a school nativity play. Angels all in white obviously need sheets that do not have patterns. Perhaps Finlay is displaying his identification more with the shepherds (a job after all that he did as a young man).
This example has a hand written note on the back cover "Happy Christmas from Ian" in thick red felt tipped pen and is joint with the origina plain white envelope that also has writing by Finlay; "Edward". Both VG+
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992 14.7 x 10.4cm, 14pp concertina artist's card with five different finials (the small sculpture on top of a pillar), the first four of which are traditional (Ball, Vanburgh Ball, Acorn, Pineapple) and the final one is denoted as a Pineapple Grenade Finial (based on the throwing weapon). Drawings by Andrew Townsend. VG+.
Andrew TownsendLittle Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
21.0 x 8cm, 2pp. A valentine's day card with several images of a flower with the petals slowly being lost until the last has gone leaving only the stalk. Much like a lover may decline a traditional question associated with valentine's day the words he loves her/he loves her not are repeated in turn until the petals have all gone. A final flower here with all the petals unplucked however rescues the day and the card announces "he loves her".
There was a companion card that reverses the gender of the words also released by Finlay at the same time. The drawing was by Gary Hincks. VG+
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11 x 15.5cm, 1pp card. A drawing by Wes Christensen of a modern man and a classical Greek man both holding up a leaflet. The text below the drawing asks "Which figure in in Costume?". The card simply seems to bring to attention that modern dress is as much a common costume as that of antiquity - which is a tad uninteresting but there you have it. We do not know the exact date of this card - our best guestimate based on the collaboration is 1999. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
6.4 x 9cm, 2pp. Artist's card with the text:
The Flageolet's Surname
drum
A flageolet is a woodwind instrument like a flute - or a pipe. Often in the military, it was paired with a drum (a pipe and drum) - hence the flute's "surname" is the drum. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1992)
10.2 x 10.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a line drawing on the front by Stephen Duncalf of a toyshop but in a deconstructed style that could be read as both a vorticist style or a cubist construction. Inside there is a text by Finlay:
vorticist
toy shop
cubist
music shop
VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1995)
23 x 16.1cm, printed envelope content of two cards - one with a text printed black on cream from R.R. Palmer's "Twelve Who Ruled" regarding Saint-Just's way to the guillotine:
Saint-Just stood up in the first cart, head held high, his neck bare, a carnation in his buttonhole, his eyes cooly surveying the crowds that lined the street. The old Saint-Just was restored who said, 'I despise the dust that forms me and speaks to you.'"
The other card is unprinted and blood red.
Both cards have been cut on the diagonal to create guillotine blade shapes.
Finlay's admiration for the purity and lack of compromise of Saint-Just ir reflected in many of his works. This is another. VG+ in like envelope.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
3.1 x 31.3cm, 4pp folded card sheet with a text:
DROPPING ZONE OF THE ROSE PETALS
in pink and
RECOLLECTION
in grey.
The colours reflect the petals first dropping, then the faded memory of their fall (the petals themselves also having lost their colour as they rot). VG+.
