Key facts
- Over 200 Aardman Animations pieces, including puppets and storyboards, were auctioned.
- The auction featured items from Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run, and Morph.
- A Wallace puppet from 'Vengeance Most Fowl' sold at auction.
- Morph and Chas puppets sold for £3,780.
- Proceeds from the auction will fund new animator training at the Aardman Academy.
More than 200 pieces of memorabilia from the Aardman studio, including original stop-motion puppets of beloved characters like Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, and Feathers McGraw, went under the hammer on Thursday. The auction, run by memorabilia auction house Propstore, celebrated the Bristol-based studio's 50th anniversary.
Items included sought-after models from the recent film 'Vengeance Most Fowl'. A Wallace puppet, described as being in "smashing condition" and constructed from clay, silicone, and resin, was among the lots. A Gromit puppet from the same film, crafted over a jointed metal armature, was also available. The catalogue emphasized that these were art pieces requiring careful handling and special packaging, warning against extreme temperatures.
Other popular lots included Feathers McGraw disguised as a nun, and early clay puppets of Morph and his pal Chas, which sold for £3,780 including buyer's premium. Morph first appeared in 1977. Storyboards from 'Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers', signed by Nick Park, fetched nearly £4,000, while a 9cm-tall clay rabbit from 'The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' sold for almost £10,000. A lunch with Aardman co-founder Peter Lord was purchased for over £11,000.
Ngaio Harding-Hill, director of attractions and live experiences and archive at Aardman, called the sale an "unprecedented opportunity" to own a piece of the studio's history. The collection was curated by the Aardman team to reflect five decades of animation. Proceeds from the auction will be invested in talent development initiatives, including bursaries at the Aardman Academy, to nurture future animators.