Last week I mentioned the Roy Davids sale. What I didn’t say was that we had placed bids for two lots, via our London agents. We were successful with one lot: a photographic portrait of Roald Dahl by Mark Gerson.
The parcel arrived on Friday afternoon and this morning one of my colleagues opened up the treasure to reveal a small, framed,black and white image of Dahl as a youngish man, sitting in his lounge, I presume, looking out towards the window. Behind is a painted portrait of a soldier, noted in David’s catalogue as Dahl.
Roald Dahl was born and brought up in Cardiff and this portrait represents the first portrait of him at the Library. There have been many Welsh translations of his works- the first was a great favourite with my children:Y crocodeil anferthol, 1989, with illustrations by Quentin Blake. This was a large scale volume, beautifully produced by the Aberystwyth based Cymdeithas Lyfrau Ceredigion, who specialise in publishing excellent translations. The Library has huge list of the other translations, an interesting study in themselves.
As we move towards Easter, chocolate is one of those musts which most people enjoy. It was Roahl Dahl who brought the love of chocolate to our attention in his delightful and disturbing tale of the poor Charlie who lived with an extended family and through goodness inherited all the chocolate and sweets he could ever wish to eat.
I wonder if the slight smile on Dahl’s face in this portrait, suggests that there was more to this Welshman than I realised. He was not just a storyteller, he was a dreamer.