More than 200 original Aardman Animations puppets, including Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and Chicken Run models, were sold at auction on Thursday, with proceeds going to train new generations of animators. The sale, run by memorabilia auction house Propstore, marked the studio's 50th anniversary.
High prices for beloved characters
Among the sought-after items were Wallace and Gromit stop-motion models from the Bristol studio's 2024 film Vengeance Most Fowl. Lot 216, a Wallace puppet in his traditional outfit of a knitted green tank top, red tie and brown trousers, sold for £50,400. The catalogue described him as in “smashing condition” and detailed his construction: his head is moulded from clay, his body is silicone, and he has a metal skeleton, with fast-cast resin teeth, shirt collar, tie, pen and pencil, and plastic eyes.
A Gromit puppet on all fours from the same film, “crafted over a fully jointed internal metal armature, allowing him to be held in his most natural pose”, fetched £31,500. The catalogue stressed these were not toys but pieces of art needing special packaging and careful handling, warning that “exposure to extreme temperatures may cause damage”.
Feathers McGraw and early classics
Another notable lot was Feathers McGraw disguised as a nun, which sold for more than £30,000. A second Feathers puppet, wearing his red rubber glove disguise, fetched almost £57,000. The catalogue reminded bidders of the line: “Feathers McGraw? Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just an innocent nun, out for a pleasure cruise.”
Early Aardman pieces also proved popular. Clay puppets of Morph and his pal Chas, made from plasticine by co-founder Peter Lord and accompanied by handwritten care instructions, sold for £3,780. A lunch for six with Lord in Bristol was bought for more than £11,000, and a stop-motion masterclass with an Aardman animator sold for just over £20,000. Storyboards from The Wrong Trousers signed by Nick Park went for almost £4,000, and a 9cm-tall clay rabbit from The Curse of the Were-Rabbit cost almost £10,000.
Affordable souvenirs and future funding
More modest items were available too, such as lot 89 – dry stone walls and gate from the Shaun the Sheep TV series, complete with “adhesive remnants from where the pieces were secured to the set” – which sold for £567. Every lot started at £100, but bidding quickly escalated.
Ngaio Harding-Hill, director of attractions and live experiences and archive at Aardman, called the sale an “unprecedented opportunity” to own a part of the studio's history. She said the collection had been carefully curated to reflect five decades of the studio, and added: “Proceeds from the auction will be invested in talent development initiatives across Aardman, including bursaries at our world-class training facility, the Aardman Academy, meaning every sale is contributing to nurturing the next generation of animation talent.”
