Bagpuss Creator's Artwork Sells for £400k at Auction
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- Peter Firmin's artwork sold for more than £400,000 at Canterbury Auction Galleries, with bidders from around the world competing for the 534-lot collection found at his Kent home.
- All 534 lots — paintings, books and collectibles spanning Firmin's career — sold across the two-day auction, the largest collection of his art ever offered at sale.
- Top prices went to paintings featuring The Clangers and Noggin the Nog, while a signed Basil Brush artwork showing the fox chatting to a mole fetched £6,000.
- An animated Gabriel the Toad and an illustration of Nogbad firing a cannon at the Ice Dragon each sold for £4,200, and a work showing Bagpuss with Emily and Professor Yaffle went for £1,600.
- Curator Susanna Woodgate said it was 'wonderful to see real fans managing to secure a keepsake' to share with children and grandchildren.
- Remaining finds from Firmin's home will be donated to The Beaney Museum in Canterbury, which already displays characters given by the family.
- Firmin, who died in 2018, co-founded Smallfilms with Oliver Postgate and created Bagpuss, The Clangers, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and Basil Brush between the 1950s and 1980s; Bagpuss was voted the UK's all-time favourite children's TV programme in 1999.
Why it matters: The 100% sell-through rate across 534 lots — with keepsakes going to individual fans rather than only institutional buyers — shows Firmin's characters retain a multi-generational pull decades after Smallfilms ended. Museums and private collectors now share custody of the largest single Firmin trove ever released, with The Beaney receiving a donated slice to anchor a public archive.
