Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
9 x 9cm, 4pp card with a painting of an archery target on the front and inside a definition:
Arrow, n. a heart seeking missile.
and a quotation about cupid from"Myths" by Bulfinch. Finlay updates the original Greek myth to a modern times where the "heat-seeking" missile is replaced by the "heart-seeking" arrow. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
8.4 x 12.5cm, 1pp card printed red and black on grey with the latin inscription that translates to the "the final argument of kings" which traditionally meant a resort to arms, however Finlay wryly notes that :We have noting to add to our previous correspondence" is a modern equivalent and notes it as "the final argument of our rulers." VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.. (1994) 5.5 x 14.8cm, 4pp artist's car with a text 'Schooner, sail your snows to the Pole." in the middle pages. A monostich is a one-line poem. Here the schooner's sails are being compared with snow because of their colour - and the pun of the word "Pole" indicates a double meaning of the sails being hoisted to the masts. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
8.4 x 6.2cm, 4pp artist's card with a concrete poem internally:
The words:
linen coif in the shape of a cloud l'Ecole re Pont-Aven Hommage a Emile Bernard are placed in the shape of a cloth bonnet with the side ties.
BR>
Emile Bernard was a post-impressionist painter who often took Pont-Aven as his source for landscape and town paintings. A linen coif was a bonnet (originally for both sexes but latterly only women wore them).,
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994) 12.2 x 8.5cm, 4pp artist's card with a drawing by Gary Hincks on the front. Internally there is a poem by Finlay: <BR><BR> HOSTA FLOWER<BR><BR> An old summer dress<BR> shared by sisters<BR> its purple faded<br> to lavender, fitting<BR> no-one, a thousand<BR> times in the wash<BR><BR> The Hosta Flower is the Plantain lily which invaded America in the 1800s from Asia. Finlay sees the colour as reminiscent of the faded colours of poor families. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
10.5 x 4.1cm, 2pp. Artist's card in the form of a bookmark where on one side a list of trees which are supposedly "clinker built" where in boats the edges of hull planks overlap each other are found on one side and on the other the list of trees are supposedly "carvel built" where in boats the edges of hull planks are laid edge to edge often with an underlying structure. Finlay finding visual correspondences between the construction methods of the dead tree parts (planks) and the look of the living trees. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.3 x 14cm, 4pp card which has internally a poem for SImon Cutts
DANGER
CORACLE
DOCKING
Cutts' publishing house was called Coracle (the name of a small one-person wood, canvas and pitch boat that is notoriously hard to steer and dock) and the back of the card notes "For Mr S. Cutts in acknowledgement of his recognitions". VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1994)
13.0 x 6.5cm, 4pp artist's card with a poem on the front:
wild roses
roses
roses
roses
rove
roses
reefed
Finlay explains that Rove here is a nautical term meaning led through and fastened (as in the case of a rope) and Reefed means to be shortened, taken in. The flowers are bunched and made into a bouquet in this visual poem. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
15.5 x 9.1cm, 2pp card with a drawing by Gary Hincks of Saint Sebastian "martyred by liberals making "points".
One of Finlay's many pointed (like arrows) small publications aimed at his enemies both real and imagined. This example is hand addressed by Finlay to his friend and collaborator Janet Boulton. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
8.7 x 6.3cm, 4pp card printed blue on white. Internal to the card is a shaped text that resembles a rounded tree - much like the post-impressionist work of Emile Bernard to which this is noted to be an homage. The text reads: "linen coif in the shape of a cloud l'ecole de Pont-Aven Hommage a Emile Bernard." A coif is a hat (usually a woman's) and often found in the post-impressionist paintings of nuns (especially in Gaugan) and in Bernard's paintings of Breton women - the word shapes resemble such a garment. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
9.4 x 12.6cm, 2pp card with on the front the text "A world cup without Scotland is like a pastoral without sheep." The world cup in 1994 was the first to take place for many years without Scotland (1990 being the last time they actually qualified at time of writing). Finlay's remarks are patriotic in a soccer sense. This example was mailed and hand addressed by Finlay to Janey Boulton. VG+ although some ink from the posting experience. The same card was also released in a card portfolio by Morningstar pPress in the same year. VG+.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
13.1 x 10cm, 8pp (concertina folded sheet). Three variants the first being Guillaume Apollinaire's calligramme in the shape of a crown and then two variants by Finlay and Stephen Bann. Finlay's when deconstructed reads "The carp enters who die one by one live on in the hearts of the Jacobins". VG+.
