Fred Hunter - Unoriginal Sins

07 Jul A TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY FINLAY TO FRED HUNTER. 1965.

Posted at 10:31h in Letters + Documents

26 x 22.2cm, 1pp. 223 words. A signed typed letter written at Gledfield House, Ardgay, by Finlay on c. 7 June 1965 soon after he had moved from Edinburgh, and just before he moved into the farmhouse on the estate, the first of his garden retreats, where he was to live for the following year: “We are not yet quite settled for we are in the basement of the ‘Big House’ till we get in the farmhouse in some 2 weeks… We still feel upheavaled… The farmhouse looks very nice, especially as it has a real sluice beside it, making a sound of running water. There is quite a large, and quite a wild, garden in front, and a big wood behind…”. Finlay asks to delay sending things to Hunter as “The earthships (the paper sculptural multiple Finaly issued) here need to be assembled and they are at the foot of mounds of heavy boxes… Once we are in the farmhouse we will be able to unpack properly.” The letter is signef=d “Ian” in red ink, with the typed addition “Sue too…”. Folded for mailing, o/w Fine, together with the original mailing envelope addressed in red ink by Finlay with stamp and 1965 franking (which allows dating of the missive)....

14 Dec THE STAR IN THE STABLE OF LIGHT. 1964. VERY EARLY CHRISTMAS CARD SIGNED.

Posted at 21:26h in Artist's Postcards

Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1964
14 x 16cm, 4pp (folded single card). This card is 1965 (as can be attested by the franking on the envelope and not 1964 as Murray's very flawed catalogue raisonne has it). According to Murray this was Finlay's second published card but we have examples of other cards from before this time that Murray did not know about - but this is early nonetheless and part of Finlay's habit of producing bespoke Xmas cards for friends. This card simply has the title words on the front - each centred around the middle line. A religious reference to the crib but also to the way a heavenly star will often be seen to have a shimmer surrounding it - again one might imagine a reference to a crown (from an attending King perhaps?).
An extremely hard card to find - we have seen only 3 examples in 20 years and it took us that same amount of time to find one for this collection. One small tear to the card on the right from being poorly opened in the envelope, internally this is signed "Happy Christmas from Ian" and is with the original postal envelope hand addressed by Finlay to Fred Hunter.

...