IAN HAMILTON FINLAY

PRINTS + POSTERS

LULLYBY. 1975.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1975
58.5 x 48.5cm, blue on white silkscreen. The image is of a number of airplanes with their wings raised (as found in the belly of an aircraft carrier) so to allow them to be placed more closely to each other. Finlay by adding the title Lullaby indicates that these planes might be seen as somehow sleeping - and the visual image reminds one of young birds in a nest. Hence this is a visual poem - the image having double meanings and hinting at subtle meanings.
The image we have used here is from a publication - the print we hold is framed in wood and glass and hard to image without reflections - but the work is in VG+ condition.

John Andrew

VENUS OF THE HOURS. 1975.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
74.9 × 36.8cm, light brown on white silkscreen on thick paper. The drawing by Ron Costley (from Finlay's instruction) is in faux Roman lettering - an attractive typography which has under the first word a drawing that doubles as both a symbolic sundial and a female vaginal mound. Venus, of course, was the goddess of love (sex) - and the shape of the gnomon and its shadows creates a capital "V" to again symbolise the female sex symbol.
One of c. 300 printed - this has slight marks in the margins but is overall VG. Scarce item.

Ron Costley

SUNDIAL PRINT. UMBRA SOLIS/NON AERIS. 1975.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
74.9 × 36.8cm, red on light brown silkscreen. A diagramatic drawing and typography by Michael Harvey is of a sundial and is joined with the Latin inscription UMBRA SOLIS/NON AERIS and the English alternative "The shadow of the sun and not of the Bronze."
The Latin and English phrases together remind one that the source of the shadow is in fact the sun not the gnomon in itself.

MICHAEL HARVEY

LUFTWAFFE: AFTER MONDRIAN. 1976.

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
41 x 53cm lithograph in two colours on paper - German war plane markings are arranged as if by the Dutch master. Mondrian's decision to limit his formal vocabulary to the three primary colours, the three primary values and the two primary directions (horizontal and vertical) meant he created works that looked like grids. In particular this work reflects the drawn composition Jetty and Ocean from 1915 where in b/w Mondrian creates a work with many crosses. One of 350 released. Very slight crease bottom right but overall VG.

HOMAGE TO AGAM. TRANSFORMABLE LINE SEGMENTS. 1982. ONE OF 150 COPIES.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
38 × 26.4cm, two part red and black silkscreen on transparent paper and white paper respectively with a drawing by David Button of of three World War I warships - INVINCIBLE. INFLEXIBLE. INDEFATIGABLE’. The overlay sheet adds red diagonal strokes - the poles which held the ships’ torpedo nets - along each hull.
With the subtitle being Homage to Agam, the work is a visual pun paintings by the Israeli artist Yaacov Agam who created optical art (OpArt) works using stripes and diagonals.
The outer card folder notes this is one of only 150 copies produced. This is an unsigned copy. VG in like folder.

David Button

AT THE FIELD’S EDGE…. 1976. ONE OF 300 SIGNED & NUMBERED COPIES.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1986
29.6 × 50.4cm, blue-grey on white silkscreen with a reproduced painting by John Borg Manduca of an aircraft carrier seen from a vantage point of the sea level which makes its size seem vast. There is also enclosing a separate sheet of tracing paper bearing the colophon information and Finlay's handwritten signature in ink.
The full quotation: ‘At the field's edge, on the vertiginous cliff-top, stood a solitary hut’ and clearly describes the greatness of such a vessel. We are not clear on the origin of the quote - please do let us know if you can identify it.
One of 300 signed and numbered copies. VG.

John Borg Manduca

ARE AIRCRAFT CARRIERS URBAN OR RURAL?

Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1976
25 x 55cm offset lithograph in green and black on off white paper. A drawing by John Borg Manduca is printed in green and has elements of camouflage - hence Finlay's question: "Are Aircraft Carriers Urban or Rural?" makes sense as the huge vessel looks like greenery in the countryside. elsewhere Finlay has taken up this theme with a different print called "Topiary Aircraft Carrier".Murray has this as 5.56. VG+ condition.

John Borg Manduca

BATTLE OF MIDWAY 1. 1977.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
56.5 × 68.7cm, two colour silkscreen with an image (by Ron Costley from Finlay's instruction) of beehives and trees some of which are aflame. The bees are flying between the hives some on the attack, others presumably in panic. A work based on the American fleet's victory over the Japanese at the battle of Midway on the Fourth of June 1942. The victory left many of the Japanese aircraft with nowhere to land once their carriers were destroyed and they had to ditch in the water and most drowned. One of 300 copies made - this has a companion print Battle of Midway II (see separate listing) These are very large prints - possibly the largest Finlay had ever made. A bit worn at the edges but overall VG.

Ron Costley

BATTLE OF MIDWAY 2. 1977.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
56.5 × 68.7cm, two colour silkscreen with typography by Ron Costley from Finlay's instruction. The text is in both English and Latin - and the former says "Here perished Akagi Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu, Yorktown. The seahives consumed with their most choice swarms by their own flame-bearing honey."
This is a second work of a pair of prints based on the American fleet's victory over the Japanese at the battle of Midway on the Fourth of June 1942. The victory left many of the Japanese aircraft with nowhere to land once their carriers were destroyed and they had to ditch in the water and most drowned. One of 300 copies made - this has a companion print Battle of Midway I (see separate listing) These are very large prints - possibly the largest Finlay had ever made. A bit worn at the edges but overall VG.

PORPHYRY. 1977.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
9.5 × 12.1Bm, brown on cream paper in folded 4pp light brown folder. The image by Ron Costley is of a stag, a crab together on a beach with the text "Enchantment An ear-alluring sweetness." a line from "On Abstinence from Animal Food" by Porphyry. a translation of part of the poem is printed on the inside of the cover - translated by Thomas Taylor. The section tells of how stags and horses and crabs can be charmed by music - the point being that the animals have more consciousness than usually ascribed to them in the days of the Romans. Porphyry was an early advocate of vegetarianism on spiritual and ethical grounds and this work reflects that philosophy.

Ron Costley

SOMEONE SOMEWHERE WANTS A CABLE FROM YOU. 1977. SIGNED BY FINLAY.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
50 x 71cm, blue and light brown/orange silkscreen on white paper with a painting by Jim Nocholson of a group of sailors pulling a metal cable on the deck of a warship. The joke being the slogan having a double meaning - a campaign by the post office (then) for people to use the telegram service. This is one of a number of signed prints by Finlay. VG>

JIM NICHOLSON

FLOWERS. 1977. ONE OF 350 SIGNED & NUMBERED EXAMPLES.

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
22.9 x 28.8cm, blue on white paper in folded 6pp blue folder. Nine warships all of the Flower Class corvette class. The names of the ships were all after flowerrs. The print asks the owner to "fill in the Flowers with colours from the palette below" - the 'colours' are all words such as "fragrant", "open", "erect", "drooping" obviously not actual colours. The idea came from a work from Tom and Laurie Clark of the Moschatel Press (who were friends of Finlay).
This is one of 350 signed and numbered copies on the inside of the folder. Two slight faint marks at bottom of the print else VG in like folder.

Jim Downie