Animation fans around the world have a rare chance to own a piece of British cinematic history as Aardman auctions off over 220 iconic puppets and memorabilia. Aardman is the studio behind such famous animated creations as Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. The sale coincides with the studio's 50th anniversary with profits being reinvested in training a new generation of animators.
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TRANSCRIPT
Aardman Animations is the British studio behind the claymation comedy franchise Wallace and Gromit.
The series centres on Wallace, a good-natured, eccentric and cheese-loving bachelor inventor, and Gromit, his loyal and intelligent dog.
“That's it! Cheese! We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!"
The first short film, A Grand Day Out, was finished and released in 1989.
Since then, Wallace and Gromit have been described as positive international cultural icons of both modern British culture and British people in general.
The BBC says they are some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK - and three of the films have won Academy awards.
Now, some of the beloved stop-motion puppets are going on sale at a rare auction of Aardman's most iconic characters.
Sian Taylor is the auction manager at Propstore.
"As part of Aardman's 50th anniversary, so their 50 years of Clay celebration, we are hosting over 200 lots in a live auction on the 24th of September. Typically we would put an estimate on them, but something like this has never been done before. To have a collection this incredible directly from Aardman, there's nothing comparable."
The catalogue features over 220 items spanning nearly every production in the Bristol studio’s half-century, offering fans a unique opportunity to own a piece of animation history.
Headlining the sale are screen-matched stop-motion puppets of Wallace, Gromit, and the villainous Feathers McGraw—complete with his signature red glove disguise—from the 2024 film Vengeance Most Fowl.
The lineup also features a Shaun the Sheep puppet from the upcoming 2026 feature Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom.
Will Becher is a director and animator at Aardman who joined the studio to work on the Chicken Run movie back in 1998.
"People love the fact that these feel like real characters. Real people in their own world. And Shaun of course is probably the most universally enjoyed because he has no dialogue. So actually all his stories can be enjoyed anywhere - and over 180 countries, I believe, have Shaun the Sheep playing."
As well as puppets and props, there are storyboards from the various features and original artworks by Nick Park - the creator of Wallace and Gromit.
But he says the puppets are the stars of the show and some of them are extremely special.
"Actually this Wallace is incredibly unique, and I think that's possibly why he's stood next to me now because there is only one of him. We have tended on feature films to make maybe 12 or 15 multiples of the same character when we're working with Shaun, for example. Each one designed so the animators can work simultaneously. So if we had one puppet it would take an animator ten years probably to make a feature. So there's multiples to a degree, but they're actually very unique, we're talking ten in the world of each of these puppets, this one and other specific characters that have special costumes. There is only one in the world, and it's this one here."
The clay puppets are expected to fetch tens of thousands of pounds - but just how fragile are they?
Will Becher again.
"These are like highly engineered instruments. They are puppets, we call them puppets because the animators are physically moving them. So they're robust in that we can move them and they hold in position. But if I dropped him on the floor, which we have in the past done to puppets, the worst thing is that his face which is made of clay is going to get squashed and covered in dirt. So then we’d spend the next two hours resculpting, cleaning and making it nice again. But everything about the costume is designed to look like clay, but is often silicone so that we can have the different colours but also the textures in there. It moves like clay, but it’s a lot quicker for us to work with."
Proceeds from the sale will be funnelled directly into talent development programmes across the studio.
They'll support bursaries at the Aardman Academy, fund skills workshops, and create opportunities for emerging animation filmmakers.
Sian Taylor says it's not too late to put a bid in.
"The auction catalogue is open now. People can start placing their bids. And then on September 24th we are going to have a live auction so people can watch along. They can see how our auctioneers going: "Yes. lot one, lot two. Sold!" Which is a really exciting element to it, I think. And so we're expecting the activity to have some fireworks."
