22 Apr

Posted at 16:03h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1999
9.5 x 10cm, 4pp, black on white artist's card with a drawing by Kathleen Lindsley of a stone in a ploughed field next to a wall. Inside there is a poem:

A STONE

A stone turned up by the plough
was carried from the shadow to
lie at the field's edge

where it was found and taken as
ballast to the black hold of a boat.

The fate of the stone to go from blackness to blackness is glum to say the least. Nature is cruel even to the inanimate. VG+.

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14 Feb

Posted at 11:49h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 2000
7 x 12.6cm, 4pp artist's card with a landscape drawing by Kathleen Lindsley. Internally there is a definition work by Finlay:

(Classical) landscape, n. a stand of concepts.

Finlay's definition is aware of the long traditions and ideas behind both landscape gardening and the painting of such scenes. VG+.

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24 Sep

Posted at 17:23h in Artist's Postcards

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
11.5 x 11.2cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing of a still life by Kathleen Lindsley on the front of a basket of fruit, flowers and a crayfish. Fructidor was the twelfth month in the French Republican Calendar: named after the Latin word fructus, which means "fruit"
Each month in the republican calendar lasted 30 days and the weeks were repurposed to ten days each called decades. Further within every decade, each day had the name of an agricultural plant, except the fifth day when there was the name of an animal, and on the last the name of an agricultural tool.
In his instruction to the artist, Finlay has had same the ten fruits and flowers and animal included in the basket as in the names of the last decade of the month (the last name of the decade being actually "basket". VG+

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21 Dec

Posted at 19:00h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
10.5 x 7.2cm, 12pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Four "proverbs" by Finlay are illustrated with drawings by Kathleen Lindsley.

"The poor fisherman counts his diamonds" for instance depends on the drawing to explain the diamonds is a metaphor for silver-backed fish.
Very good condition apart from some minor rust on staples. Murrsay has this as 1992 but the book has 1991.

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02 Jul

Posted at 21:25h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991 10.0 x 6.8cm, 14pp plus wrappers and printed dust jacket. Artist's book with seven illustrations by Kathleen Lindsley and short proverb-like texts by Finlay, for example, "The wind roaring in the night is both stranger and friend." VG+ - although staples are a bit rusty. ...

21 Jul

Posted at 08:04h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1990
9.8 x 9.3cm, 16pp and card wrappers and printed light green dust jacket. Drawings by Kathleen Lindsley of various baskets containing bread, wheat leaves and finally, heads are denoted as DOMESTIC, PASTORAL, PARNASSIAN and SUBLIME. Again Finlay sees the extremes of the Terror as somehow pure and homely even if evil.
Staples are a bit rusted else VG+. ...

15 Dec

Posted at 07:12h in Artist's Books

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
11.6 x 7cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. Five drawings by Kathleen Lindsley are conjoined with Finlay's pithy proverbs.

"Temper harshness with tolerance, tolerance with justice"

when applied to the Jacobins (the most severe of the French revolutionary political clubs named after the religious order where they initially met) this can be seen as a plea for moderation. Another proverb reads:

"If you want to avoid the worst of the mud, walk in the ruts."

which also alludes to the moral state of the revolutionary club.
This is one of 250 signed copies which is dedicated to "Ian , with love from Ian" in red ink. VG+.

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22 Jun

Posted at 15:29h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp red outer folder with a drawing by Kathleen Lindsley. Internally a 13.4 x 9.2cm, 4pp sheet with a poem:

Avenue Studios, Fulham Road*

Rose
Pettigrew

Pettigrew
Rose

Rose Pettigrew was the most significant of Whistler's models but later is recorded as falling in love with Philip Wilson Steer (apparently unrequited). Steer was one of the artists who lived at the Avenue Studios which gives this poem it's name.
By reersing the model's name in the second part of the poem, Finlay is comparing her to an English rose.
This is one of a series of works which the Wild hawthorn Press denoted as "Poems in folders". VG+.

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22 Apr

Posted at 11:12h in Poems in folders

Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
13 x 9.1cm, 4pp light brown outer folder. Internally a 13 x 9.1cm, 4pp sheet with a poem

Sundial
The motto is silent.
The shadow speaks.

The poem emphasises that the true importance on a sundial is the shadow of the gnomon and not the carvings added to it as decoration. The drawing on the cover was by Kathleen Lindsley.
This was one of a series of "poems in folders". VG+.

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