CARNATION.

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.