Kent artist's classic kids' TV artwork sells at auction for £400,000
Peter Firmin was the co-creator of Bagpuss and behind the likes of The Clangers and Basil Brush
Artwork by Bagpuss co-creator, Peter Firmin from Kent - including paintings of The Clangers and Basil Brush - has sold for more than £400,000.
Some 500 paintings, books and collectibles by the British puppeteer went up for auction with every lot sold during a two-day event held by Canterbury Auction Galleries.
The sale was the largest collection of Firmin’s art ever to come to auction with most of the pieces selling well over estimated values.
One of the highest-selling pieces included a signed painting of beloved fox Basil Brush chatting to a mole.
Basil Brush painting sells for £6,000
Firmin co-created the cheerful fox who is best known for appearing as a glove puppet on the BBC’s The Basil Brush Show, with the painting selling for £6,000 after it was originally estimated at £120-£160.
A number of colour paintings of The Clangers, the knitted alien species whose misadventures bring them face-to-face with a planet’s other inhabitants, also featured as part of the collection including the illustration Firmin’s Tiny Clanger In The Iron Chicken’s Nest, which sold for £3,900.
It was originally estimated to sell for between £200-£300.
Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine items also sold
Artwork featuring the beloved king from the children’s animated series Noggin the Nog also went under the hammer.
Among the pieces was an illustration of villain Nogbad the Bad firing a cannon at the Ice Dragon, which fetched £4,200 – well over its estimated sale which ranged between £200 to £300.
Other works include a mechanical model of the character Gabriel the Toad, which sold for £4,200, and a painting of the famous pink cat Bagpuss with his friends, Emily and Professor Yaffle the woodpecker, which sold for £1,600.
Susanna Woodgate, who curated the sale, said: “It was wonderful to see real fans managing to secure a keepsake of something they loved, or perhaps to share with their own children and grandchildren.”
Firmin, who died in 2018, co-founded the production company Smallfilms with puppeteer Oliver Postgate with the two going on to create a string of animated children’s TV shows.
Their first big hit was in 1959 with Ivor The Engine, about a Welsh steam locomotive who wanted to sing in a choir, with the first hand-drawn comic strip selling at the auction for £940.
Many of Firmin’s beloved characters, including the original Bagpuss and Clangers puppets, are on permanent display at The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge museum in Canterbury.
In 2014, Firmin won a Bafta Children’s Special Award for his contribution to children’s media.