Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1976)
15.3 x 15.3cm, green on white ceramic tile with typography by George L. Thomson - the various port letters of Scottish fishing boats are placed in a circular design (similar to Sea Poppy and earlier prints) to create a "world" or to remind one of the way stars circle in the sky over time.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1976)
15.3 x 15.3cm, blue on white ceramic tile with a design by Jim Downie (who later fell out with Finlay by the way the image had been used) - the text reads "TREE-SHELLS. Instructions: Apply ear to Tree-Shell. Listen for lakes." This is a blue on white variant - there are also green on white tiles.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1976)
15.3 x 15.3cm, yellow on white ceramic tile with a typographic design - the text A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE" (Shakespeare presumably) is printed along with the name Gertrude Jekyll - a turn of the century British horticulturist and garden designer. This is a yellow on white variant - there are also pink and red versions also on white tiles.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1976) 15.3 x 15.3cm, blue on white ceramic tile with a design by Jim Downie (who later fell out with Finlay by the way the image had been used) - the text reads "TREE-SHELLS. Instructions: Apply ear to Tree-Shell. Listen for lakes." This is a green on white variant - there are also blue on white tiles.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
21 x 30cm, 1pp black on cream paper with a design for jam pot covers (the printed paper placed on the outside of jam lids). The design here is based on Saint Just's famous dictum "TOO MANY LAWS TOO FEW EXAMPLES". Limitation unknown.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
16 x 30cm, 1pp black on white paper with a design for jam pot covers (the printed paper placed on the outside of jam lids). The design here is of two sundials. The text on the first has FERREA VIRGA EST/UMBRATILIS MOTUS (which Finlay slightly takes liberties and translates as "Stainless steel gnomon/porcelain hour") and "STAY-SAIL" on the second. The first describes the light on the imagined sundial and the latter is a reference to the voyage of a ship. Murray has this as 7.9 and seems to not know there were two variants in design and colour of paper.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
16 x 30cm, 1pp black on yellow paper with a design for jam pot covers (the printed paper placed on the outside of jam lids). The design here is of two sundials. The text in latin means Light is the shadow of god. Limitation unknown - this is one of two different designs - the other being on white paper. Murray has this as 7.9 and seems to not know there were two variants.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1979 19 x 13cm, closed envelope content of twelve tags (each with the word butterfly printed on them) and ties which are to be added to growing plants in a garden to flutter in the wind and hence metaphorically add butterflies to any plot. Drawing by George L. Thomson. VG.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1979)
10.8 x 7cm, 1pp, adhesive back ex libris slip. The design has an uncredited drawing of a Spitfire plane moving amongst searchlight. The text being a religious reference. The label was printed for an exhibition in the London V & A. Murray 7.19.
Little Sparta: Wild HawthonePress, n.d. (1979)
12.5 x 7cm, 1pp, adhesive back ex libris slip. The design has an uncredited drawing of a cemetery island with crypt and the epigram by Finlay: "Superior Gardens are composed of Glooms & Solitudes and not of Plants & Trees." The work might be seen as a momento mori as well as a comment on Finlay's thoughts on how to create a successful and complex garden. Not in Murray.
