Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1997
8 x 16cm, 2pp artist's card with typography by Michael Harvey printed green and lime on white card. The poem reads
GROVE.
FLYING-JIB OR OUTE-JIB. MAIN-STAYSAIL JIB. MAIN-TRYSAL. FORE-STAYSAIL MIZEN-STAYSAIL. FORE-TRYSAIL JIB-HEADED SPANKER
The ship is described by its various masts and sails - the verticality of which reminds Finlay of a grove of trees. The bring colour of the card also evokes vegetation. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1996
13.4 x 14.2cm, 2pp brown on cream artist's card with typography by Michael Harvey in an old-fashioned style. The text notes that linseed oil, cod oil, red ochre, yellow ochre and seawater caused the colouring on older sails as if deliberately painted. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
8.3 x 19.2cm, 1pp, Artist's card with an elevation drawing of a modern warship with the various towers and gun placements being labelled as if they are the four types of classical columns found in Greek architecture. An amusing correspondence but the quotation "For the Temples of the Greeks our homesickness last forever" comes from Odysseus and his longing for the familiar sights of his home. That gives this war machine a poignancy that the forms of sheet metal itself are unlikely to encourage. The beauty of Michael Harvey's line drawing also makes the boat a thing of classical form.
This image was also a much larger print and one of Finlay's most popular late works. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1995
10.5 x 15cm, 2pp, Artist's card with concrete poem drawn by Michael Harvey in orange and green. The words Purse and Seine are jumbled up the former words all on top, the latter below. The mass of the words comes to resemble the actual Purse Seine - a form of netting that is vertical and surrounds the fish - usually netting far more catch than more traditional formats. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d.
5.5 x 3.5 x 1.3cm, original "Scottish bluebell" matchbox which has been modified by the addition of a printed glued on card such that when the box is opened the "Sail" of a boat emerges with the text "WK279" upon it - the boat's number. If you wish to google it then it is a real boat - working trawler. On another part of the card the text reads: "BLUEBELL Call Sign GMWZ 38 net tons". The boat's name , of course, matches the brand of the matches.
An ingenious small object multiple that charms in the surprise of the pop up "sail". Edition size not known. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
10.5 x 14.2cm, 2pp card designed by Michael Harvey under Finlay's instruction. A brick wall has the words
Holland
WINDMILLS
WATERWAYS
BICYCLES
BRICKS
The cliches of Holland are conjoined with Dutch brick which is (clear from its name) a regional brick which was used to create a different architectural look (and also for ballast in British boats), Dutch bond is also a style of laying bricks in which " the vertical joints of the stretchers in any course are in line with the centres of the first stretchers above and below." as here. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1994
11 x 14.2cm, 1pp card. A drawing of a lemon by Michael Harvey using architectural methods - as if on a blue print giving plans and body plans. Finlay often uses fruit to represent boats and the various parts of the fruit here are labelled as "aft" or fore". VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1992
12.5 x 14.8cm, 4pp. Folding card with a drawing by Michael Harvey on the front and inside. The watering can has the text on it that is repeated inside the card so it can be read in full: "The mute dispenser of the vernal shower". The latter is an adaption of Thomas Gray’s 1769 "Sweet is the breath of vernal shower . . . The still small voice of gratitude" (‘Ode for Music’). The water from the watering-can is now a spring-time shower but without any sound of rain. Finlay may also be reminding the reader of the events of Arrosoir 1974 when Robespierre and his cohorts were removed overnight by his colleagues on the National Convention but that was July and perhaps not a spring cleansing shower - that is moot. VG+
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1991
26 x 18cm, 20pp plus card wrappers and printed dust jacket. A proposal for Floriade, The Hague, Holland where 6 different inscribed milestones were to be situated. The first reminds one of a gravestone and its text a reminder of death as well as of a journey:
MAN
A passerby
The drawings were by Michael Harvey who also drew the proposed plan for the site where the milestones would be placed between two trees in a row.
ix Milestones
A Proposal for
£65.00
1991
with Michael Harvey
20 pp booklet with dustjacket
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Green River: Longhouse, 1991
16 x 23cm black on yellow printed envelope content of two brochures.
SUNDIALS. 21 x 15cm, 8pp (single folded sheet) with 4 illustrations of works by Michael Harvey and an essay by R. C. Kenedy. This booklet is signed and numbered from an edition of 30 copies in black ink by Finlay after the essay.
I SING FOR THE MUSES AND MYSELF. 21 x 15cm, 8pp (single folded sheet) with 4 drawings of Little Sparta by Walter Miller and an essay by Finlay's son Alex Finlay.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1989
59 x 59cm, blue on white silkscreen. The work is entirely typographical, the text - SWALLOWS LITTLE MATELOTS - hand-drawn by Michael Harvey. The font is light and sans serif - and the ease of line reminds one of the bird's flight against the blue sky. Additionally the Ws and Ms in the rhythmic drawing reflect the wings of these nimble birds. Finally the poet's words reminds everyone that these fabulously fast and social animals have similarities to sailors. A lovely print which in its simplicity deceives. VG+.
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Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1985
25 x 29cm, black on green folder lithograph in folder content of two lithographs after drawings by Michael Harvey of the proposed stone gateway and a textual explanation thus: 'Implicit in the column is the natural tree, which was likewise inhabited by its nymph or dryad. Here, in place of the column, there is the pilaster, and the dryads are present in the 'distanced' form of the text derived from J.K.Lavater's 'Physiognomical Fragments' (1802). The design is based on that for a garden gateway by the Elizabethan architect Indigo Jones."
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