Patrick Benson (1956-), illustrator; Dahl, Roald
Publisher's paste-up for The Minpins, with original drawings by Benson
Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000
Auction: 18 June 2025 from 10:00 BST
Description
4to (27.5 x 22cm), 24 leaves of lightweight paper, stitched, with photocopies of illustrations and of proof text mounted to rectos and versos, containing the complete text except for prelims (pp. [1-4] left blank), annotated throughout by the publisher with typesetting instructions and manuscript pagination, with original illustrations by Patrick Benson as follows:
3 double-page pencil drawings, to pp. 26-7 ('Little Billy simply stood there staring'), 36-7 ('the whole lake seemed to erupt'), 42-3 ('Swan flew higher than ever before'), and 44-5 ('Swan flew through the night');
2 full-page pencil drawings, to pp. 32 ('Swan was flying back and forth'), and 39 ('Don Mini stood up to make a speech', the illustration entirely different from the published version);
7 half- or quarter-page pencil drawings, to pp. 5 ('gazing out through the open window'), 16 ('climbing higher and higher to get away', outlined in ink), 17 ('a tiny face in the window'), 28 (‘Little Billy said to Don Mini’), 29 ('Don Mini turned to one of the robins', annotated ‘maybe oak’), 46 ('Swan would fly Little Billy back to the old tree'), and 47 ('"Have you forgotten our suction-boots?"');
8 vignettes in pencil, pen-and-ink or both to pp. [1] verso (dove), 11 ('Little Billy glanced back quickly over his shoulder', moved and altered in the published version), 21 (3 distinct vignettes), 24 ('a lovely blue swallow alighted on a branch), 33 (minpin on branch), 41 ('Very quietly he climbed in');
collaged alterations and additions to photocopied illustrations on pp. 23 ('"You can never get down from this tree"', the figure of Don Mini on his branch being a small pen-and-ink sketch, max. height approx. 9cm), pp. 30-31 (‘Little Billy climbed onto Swan’s back', Billy and the Swan being an original watercolour on tracing paper with pen-and-ink outlining, max. length approx. 17cm; extra foliage detail added in pencil to facing page);
pictorial double-page border in pencil to pp. 18-19.
Condition: final 2 leaves (pp. 45-8) detached
Provenance
Estate of the late Ian Craig.
Footnote
The Minpins was the final book written by Dahl, who died a year before its publication by Jonathan Cape in 1991. Ian Craig (1944-2023) was Jonathan Cape's art director from 1973 to 1989, but having overseen the production of Dahl's previous works, including Boy (see lot 100), he worked on The Minpins in an independent capacity while employed by rival publisher HarperCollins. Early in his tenure at HarperCollins Ian Craig was assigned to work with The Tiger Who Came to Tea author Judith Kerr, initiating a celebrated collaboration between the two which lasted until her death in 2019; he was also a valued collaborator of other artists including Ralph Steadman and John Burningham.