More than 200 original stop-motion puppets — including Wallace, Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and characters from Chicken Run — went under the hammer on Thursday, as Aardman celebrated its 50th anniversary by selling pieces from its production archive.

The sale, announced by the Bristol-based studio, drew spirited bidding from fans and collectors eager to own physical pieces of some of Britain's most beloved animated films. The enthusiasm on display might have prompted even the famously unflappable Gromit to raise an eyebrow, and Wallace himself to offer a trademark "good grief!"

The lots covered the breadth of Aardman's output. The studio, founded in 1976, built its reputation on clay-and-plasticine stop-motion animation, from the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit shorts to the feature films Chicken Run (2000) and Shaun the Sheep, the latter now a franchise spanning television, film and merchandising.

Aardman said proceeds from the auction would fund training for new generations of animators, channelling collectors' money back into the craft that produced the puppets in the first place.

The timing is deliberate. The studio is marking its 50th anniversary in 2026, and the auction forms part of a programme of events celebrating half a century of handmade animation. Founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, Aardman has remained one of the few major studios still committed to stop-motion at scale, even as the industry has shifted toward computer-generated imagery.

For buyers, the appeal was obvious: these were not replicas or merchandising tie-ins but the actual figures that appeared on screen, manipulated frame by frame by Aardman's animators. Each puppet carries the wear of production use — fingerprints, patches and repairs accumulated over years of filming.

The strong results — and the competitive bidding the sale generated — signal a robust market for animation artefacts, a category that auction houses have increasingly promoted alongside traditional film and entertainment memorabilia. As Aardman looks to its next half-century, the sale suggests the studio's earliest and best-loved creations may prove as durable with collectors as they have been with audiences.