The image in this poem has been modified from a figurative painting by Puvis de Chavnannes through addition of a French republican tricolor button to the mast of his boat. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Stephan Bann provides an explanation of the poem in the accompanying leaflet as follows. Thermidor was the month in the French Revolutionary calendar when the summer heat was its most intense, and the grain at its ripest. It was also the month, in 1794, when Robespierre and his followers met their deaths at the guillotine. In the image of this poem, the abrupt cleavage of the word, THER MIDOR, and of the figured sheaf of flowers, suggest the termination of the revolution in its Jacobian sense. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The print depicts a thorn with barbs. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This Christmas presentation book subtitled "On the Way to Little Sparta" was conceived by Finlay and photographed by Robin Gillanders. It relates the closing of Finlay's famed garden by the Scottish government. The sign on the first gate into the garden reads, "Following the authority's action against the Garden Temple, Little Sparta is closed to the public." The second gate sign reads, "Strathclyde Region made war on Little Sparta - Strathclyde Region is no more." The third gate sign reads, "Closed with the support of The Scottish Arts Council." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Relates to the World War II battle of Midway. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

A folded sheet onto which is printed a critical text by Stephen Bann accompanies this medallion. The image is a metaphor for the World War II battle of Midway in the South Pacific which was fought with airpower rather that ship to ship sightings. The text accompanying this work is stored in a box of Finlay booklets. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Image is an armored tank. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Depicts a silhouette of an aircraft carrier as a topiary object. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The print depicts the same seven vertically arranged labels of measurements that was adapted from Ben Nicholson's "Letters and Numbers." -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The twine is blue and the string is white. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The spools of thread in a box were mailed to the Sackners as a Christmas gift from Finlay. One spool has blue, the other black thread, serving as a metaphor for clear and stormy weather, -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

A wash-like painting of the sky, the sea, a road, a desert, with "Ulysses Was Here" printed on the road in classical typography. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This proposal for a revolutionary garden in Versailles was never carried out owing to a political perception in France that Finlay espoused pro-Nazi, anti-semitic views (this opinion is not shared by the Sackners). -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Depicts a shovel labeled Ventose on its blade with a landscape in the background. The Finlay bibliographies differ as to its tirage 250 or 75 but it is more likely 250. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This is a varient copy of a print with the same title in Finlay's portfolio Headlines:Eavelines. The overlaid text in this print as well as the colors differ from the print in the portfolio. The finished print has words printed in blue and bluish-purple and the varient copy is printed in green and light blue. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

The prior published essays in this book, edited by Ian Hamilton Finlay's son, present a comprehensive survey of his father's poetry and art, from 1958 to 1995. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This publication which was edited by Zdenek Felix and Pia Simig was published on the occasion of Finlay's exhibition entitled Works - Pure and Political at Diechtorhallen, Hamburg Germany in 1995. Includes photographs b&w of Finlay's sculptural works, documentation on their significance, and a listing of his collaborators. Archival material forming the basis for several of these works is held by the Sackner Archive, e.g., Max Plank Institute, Stuttgart (1972). -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.