Scope and Contents In March 1973, Finlay writes to Stephen Bann to compliment him on an account of a Tarasque weekend and to discuss a poem in French by Claudel, from "100 Phrases for Fans," that had been translated and sent to him by Edward Lucie-Smith. He encloses a copy of this poem which he retyped with his own modifications as well as a letter from Smith. Finlay requests Bann's opinion as to the appropriateness for him to interpret the poem's layout as a sundial inscription and of Finlay's rendition. Still in March 1973, Finlay writes to Edward Lucie-Smith for clarification of Claudel's poem that he had sent to Finlay previously. The poem reads Fan (opposite page), Poems written upon the breath. Finlay asks Smith as to why "Fan" is on the opposite page and why the words have been split. Finlay wonders whether the disjointed words equate to a fan-picture when the fan is closed and if the phrase in the poem, "written upon a breath" signifies that the fan makes a little breathing. Bann responds to...

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The image on this card is a color photograph of a grave marker sculpture in Finlay's garden with nearby elf dolls. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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Consists of b&w photographs of London streets. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This the second (!) of two cards with the same poem but a different image of the tree. Here the drawing is more defined with the leaves resembling the roughened outer shell of an oyster shell whereas in the first presentation with Ian Gardner (1971), the tree is rendered a solid green color without an outline of leaves but a shape more like a clam shell. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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This the second (!) of two cards with the same poem but a different image of the tree. Here the drawing is more defined with the leaves resembling the outer shell of an oyster whereas in the first presentation with Ian Gardner (1971), the tree has a solid green color without outline of leaves and a shape resembling a clam shell. The tree is drawnd in black ink but the card is printed in green ink. The printed text collaged onto the cardboard support was cut from Gardner's card. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

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The tree has a solid green color with a shape resembling a clam shell. According to Willliam Allen (WEB 2013), this is the true first edition of this important card. A later version of this card is often mistaken to be the first edition. This card features Gardner's watercolour image - a tile version of Tree Shells based on this image was made in the 1970s and caused much controversy between Gardner and Finlay. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.