Twenty humorous cartoons from the late 1960s have been donated to the National Library of Wales by renowned Welsh portrait artist David Griffiths MBE.

The cards, which have been hidden away for decades, were made for BBC Wales television productions such as the Heddiw, Y Tywydd and music programmes before there were on-screen computer graphics.

They are rare because usually they would have been discarded by producers but they help tell the story of how television was made, and how early-career artists would make a living.

The cartoons were used to display stock prices on the news and provide humorous context to weather reports. Griffiths also made a series of cartoons for music programme Disc a Dawn which were used as backgrounds to English songs, by artists including The Beach Boys and The Kinks.

One of these can be seen in a 1969 episode of Disc a Dawn, where Dafydd Iwan sings Croeso Chwedeg Nain – a song about the 1969 investiture of Prince Charles, at National Library of Wales’ Clip Corners located across Wales where anybody can access the Wales Broadcast Archive.

David Griffiths had a very successful career as an oil painter, with his portrait of Prince Charles in 1970 propelling his career.

The cartoons were presented to the library by Arfon Haines Davies, friend of David Griffiths, and editor of his autobiography, who said: “I'm fascinated with these cartoon caption cards which show David Griffiths' sense of humour and skill as an artist.”

Morfudd Bevan, National Library of Wales Art Curator said: “David Griffiths has always been a great supporter of the National library, and we are tremendously proud to house a comprehensive collection of the artist’s portraits within our National Art Collection. These cartoons will be a priceless addition to our collection of Welsh illustrators' artistic works which are housed within our archives.”