01 Jan EX LIBRIS. (BARGE). 1979.
London: V&A, 1979
10.8 x 7cm, 1pp, adhesive back ex libris slip issued at a London exhibition. The drawing by Michael Howard was to Finlay's description. Unused. ...
15 Mar ACHTUNG! MINEN. 1977.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1977
15 x 10.4cm, 2pp. A drawing by Michael Harvey of a gravestone with the title German text - Beware! Mines - and a skull and crossbones motif, it is covered in snow. This is a reference to the German attack on Russia which stumbled badly due to poor supply but also because of the vicious Russian weather. Much like Napolean's army before them, many died due to the cold conditions as they retreated back to their homelands. VG+.
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30 Nov 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.
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25 Feb THE HARBOUR. 1975.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d. (1975)
13 x 13cm., green on white ceramic tile. The image is a drawing by Michael Harvey and a verse:"When from the Nor' Nor' West it blows/And sudden showers make waters chilly/I wrap my sails about my nose and anchor by the water-lily." The verse came from a collection of such poems called A MAST OF HANKIES - each of which tells a tale of toy boats. The reference to the sail being wrapped around one's nose is from the idea that the sails of the model boats are created from nose hankies. Finlay for many years built such toys. VG+. Very scarce....
03 Oct THE LAST NORFOLK WHERRY. 1974.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1974.
9.5 x 5cm, 12pp (single folded sheet). Black on cheap green card with the text: "Who owned the last Norfolk Wherry" and if the card is turned ninety degrees the answer is given as "Messrs. Woods, Sadd & Moore". and a repeated drawing by Michael Harvey. The card (the least attractive, or interesting that Finlay made to our opinion) regards the loss of the wherry boats that used to be found on the Norwich Broads. Messrs. Woods, Sadd & Moore were barley and seed merchants and Finlay finds the partners' names to be evocative of the countryside and a lost past. VG+.
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22 Jun HOMAGE TO MALEVICH. 1974. ONE OF 300 SIGNED & NUMBERED EXAMPLES.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, n.d (1974)
28 x 28cm, printed paper folder content of a 28 x 28cm red, blue and black offset lithographic print.
The image is of two world war fighter planes (one on fire having been shot down) and airborne debris - drawn on Finlay's instruction by Michael Harvey.
The style is clearly that of Malevich's Supremacism - an abstract form that used hard edge geometric shapes to create works - in fact Melevich had created a painting of a plane in flight called "Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying" in 1914/5 which is similar in many ways albeit in different colours.
The Tate Gallery claims that "Finlay has said that Malevich would have seen himself as ‘the best aeroplane’, and that the victim in the dog-fight might be Vladimir Tatlin, a rival Soviet artist."
One of 300 copies signed and numbered by Finlay on the back of the folder. VG.
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25 Feb NECKTIE. 1973
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press 1975
35.5 x 44cm, red, orange and black offset lithograph. A first world war tank is overprinted in bright stripes - which of course would have been impractical as disguise in war. What the image does mostly remind one of is a private school tie - and that is the point here, the class origins of the army leadership in the first world war was an important part of the British aspects of the conflict.
This print is, in many ways, a companion print to ACADIA - a camouflaged Second World War tank.
The drawing is by Michael Harvey.
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08 Jan ESTUARY CUPBOARDS. 1973.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1973.
14 x 12cm, 4pp - with a drawing of anchored boats in a river basin with trees on the shore. The title suggests that the boats are little more than wooden storage units which one cannot argue with when they are left to wait their next journey. Drawing by Michael Harvey. VG+.
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21 Aug HONEY BY THE WATER. 1972.
Los Angeles: Black Sparrow Press, 1972
28 x 20cm, 58pp. Boards with printed title. An anthology of concrete poems (in part designed by Michael Harvey) with a section dedicated to sundials. This is the second US publication (After the Something Else Press publication the year before. This is one of 200 signed and numbered copies aside from the 1,000 unnumbered copies. VG+. ...
28 Jun HOMAGE TO JONATHAN WILLIAMS. 1972.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1972
13.5 x 16cm, 2pp - Harvey's drawing of an Barque (a ship with three or more masts) has numbers associated with each part as if a "painting by numbers" - only every colour is a virginal white. Williams was a long term friend and collaborator/publisher of Finlay. In truth this is the one Finlay reference/meaning I cannot fathom - if you know then do get in touch.
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23 Jun D1. 1972.
Little Sparta: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1972
24.2×32.2cm. three part folding card with various texts silkscreened in black on grey. The card which is folded into three gate folded nested sheets opens up to show different texts - THE HAY STACK'S WHISP and THE SMOKE STACK'S WHISP. Typograsphy and design by Michael Harvey
Finlay (as elsewhere) brings correspondence between boats and processed fields of wheat.
HMS D1 was one of eight D-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the first decade of the 20th century and was one of the first diesel submarines which replaced petrol vessels. Being a submarine sometimes only the chimney stack could be seen above the water line - like wheat stacks on a harvested field.
Murray has this as a print - which is absurd - we are catagorising it as a folding card for this collection. Very good condition.
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11 Jan IS THERE A SHIP NAMED THE WAVE SHEAF? 1972.
Dunsyre: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1972
10.5 x 14.9cm, 4pp. Christmas card with typography by Michael Harvey with the title text across the card printed light yellow on yellow. The colour is meant to be reminiscent of wheat - and the boat name "Wave Sheaf" references the way the wind makes the stalks billow as if they are waves. The way the text is placed also implies a voyage across the horizon by a boat and simultaneously the ascenders of the letters might be regarded as masts or the sheaves. Additionally a wave-sheave was a traditional offering given by Jewish priests to their god and preceded the harvesting of the corn.
Leviticus 23:10-14 says "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you be come into the land which I give to you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it."
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