SPRING POEM. 1994. TWO CARDS IN ENVELOPE.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
Two cards in same format although one is printed blue on white, the other brown on white - each 6.7 x 10cm, 4pp (assymetric fold) . The cards both have PL on the front but when opened the blue card reads PL/OVER and the brown card reads PL/OUGH. Both are things (bird and farming equipment) that one would find in spring. The blue and brown, of course, reflecting the sky and dirt (blue and brown being often used by Finlay in part for the sky/earth dichotomy but also an oblique reference to Wittgenstein). VG+ in like envelope.

PLANK. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
4.5 x 14cm, 4pp . The card has a definition work -
PLANK, n. a segment of the skin or rind of a small boat, especially a small fishing boat. See Lemon.
placed in a brown shape that resembles a boat. VG+.

ECHOES SERIES HASTING(S) LUGGER. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
10.3 x 14.8cm, 1pp . Printed brown on light brown card - the HASTING(S) LUGGER has both the meaning of a boat and also a mild dig at Finlay's friend, the poet, Harry Gilonis (from Hastings). The boats were very large and sluggish with crews of ten and usually 3 masts. Above the main test is "Storm Brewing. Tea Brewing" - another comparison between boat and man. The print colour also being that of strong teas. VG+.

CITRON BLEU. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
11.7 x 15.9cm, 1pp. Printed blue and orange on white card - the drawing of the boat is after William Gilles (as I write this I am only 100 m from Gilles former house) by Gary Hincks. Finlay often compares boats with lemons. VG+.

ADAPTION. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
7.9 x 6.5cm, 4pp. The Christmas song "O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum" is echoed in a translation that changes the Christmas tree to a Hazelgrove.

O Hazelgrove, O Hazelgrove,
How beautiful is thy gear.

Hazelgrove being the name of a trawler - BCK 35 - out of Fleetwood. The gear being its equipment. (The number is now allocated to a new ship). VG+.

ROVINE DI RAHARBARO. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
17.5 x 12.7m, 2pp. The card reproduces a photograph by David Paterson in b//w of old rhubarb leaves overgrowing part of the Little Sparta garden. The title of the card makes a joke of the image , the Italian translated to "rhubarb ruins". VG+.

FLIRT. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
14.5 x 9.3m, 1pp. The card reproduced a vintage photograph of a small three sailed boat and crew - CH.8619 - and the text "Cours apres moi que je t'attrape" - "run after me, I will catch you" which Finlay translates into the bare word "FLIRT". VG+.

INSCRIPTION. 1994.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
13.0 x 15.4cm, 4pp. A tipped on colour photograph by Antonia Reeve of a Finlay wall sculpture by John Andrew. The marble inscription reads: "For the first time men earnestly relied upon heaven chronology became historical and astronomical at the same time." a quote by Michelet and an explanatory note by Finlay noting how the Republican calendar "ended" time. VG+.

THE OCTOBER-COLOURED SAILS OF OLD THAMES BARGES. 1994. SIGNED BY FINLAY.

Little: Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, Xmas 1994
6.7 x 13cm, 4pp card with 6.7 x 13cm, 1pp insert.
The card is a typical evolving visual poem by Finlay:

the October-coloured sails of old Thames barges
the water-filled footprints of old Thames barges
the cold Christmas stables of old Thames barges
the Georgian pastorals of old Thames barges

The fourth line is printed in festive red.
The insert explains the imagery: the October-coloured sails are caused by the linseed oil on the sails hinting at Autumn colours, the water-filled footprints comes from a quote from a book on old barges where abandoned boats are left in mud in creeks to rot, the festive line recalls the "long, low holds with their tie beams and ceilings" which Finlay clearly sees as a suitable site for a manger, and the Georgian pastorals reflects the hay and straw that many of the boats carried - turning them into miniature moving countrysides.
This example is signed " Happy Christmas from Ian" in pencil on the back and also has the original envlope which is addressed in pencil (again by Finlay) to Edward and Jan. VG+.

SANS-CULOTTE : SANS-CULOTTES. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
14 x 11cm, 1pp. he card reproduced a vintage photograph of a small three sailed boat and crew - CH.8619 - returning home with masts down after fishing (an image of the same boat that Finlay used in the 1994 FLIRT) and the text "SANS-CULOTTE: SANS-CULOTTES" beneath it.
The sans-culottes were the great mass of the people during the 18th century and a motive force in the late years of the French revolution: the nickname meaning they did not have breechs (because of poverty).
This is an image of a working trawler - representing the proletarian masses in some sense, and with the sails down they are metaphorically also without breeches. VG+.

SAIL PLAN. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
13.6 x 10.4cm, 4pp. A drawing by Gary Hincks of a fishing boat with five sails - each is numbered in the "plan" and are all denoted as being made from a "hanky" - namely, Foresale, Topsail, Staysail and Mainsail hankies but the fifth is denoted as Sunday Hanky.
The "hankies" clearly mark out this boat as a toy model and the final sail is something of an oddity in sailing in that it is not that an important element in the rigging. As such - like a Sunday Hanky - only shown during important events, it is an adornment rather than functional. VG+.

MONOSTITCH. 1995.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
6 x 12cm, 4pp. A monostitch is a one line poem - here the monostich is preceded by "For a Seat - to be Placed by a Stream".
Inside the poem reads "A Row of Crack Willows or Marilyn Monroes". Crack willows are trees that are renowned for the sound they make when the branches and parts of the trunk break. Monroe was, of course, a film actress who died early and a great beauty.
The leaves of the willows, of course, billow as they hang down and that is reminiscent of the most famous of images of Monroe with her wide skirt billowing up as she stands over an underground hot air grate in the film "Some Like It Hot". There is also a duplication of the sound of the word Row in her name. VG+.

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