The sale included more than 500 paintings, books and collectibles found at Peter Firmin's home.

A Peter Firmin illustration featuring Bagpuss, Emily and Professor Yaffle sold for £1,600 at auction Artwork by the creator of Bagpuss has sold at auction for more than £400,000, attracting bidders from around the world. The sale included more than 500 paintings, books and collectibles that were found at Peter Firmin's Kent home when it went up for sale. The artist and puppet maker co-created characters including Bagpuss, The Clangers, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and Basil Brush, with fellow creator Oliver Postgate. Among the highest-priced lots were paintings featuring The Clangers and Noggin the Nog, while a signed Basil Brush artwork, showing the cheerful fox chatting to a mole, sold for £6,000. An animated Gabriel the Toad character and an illustration of Nogbad firing a cannon at the Ice Dragon both fetched £4,200. Bagpuss and his friends remained "rightly popular", auctioneers said, with a work showing the famous pink cat with Emily and Professor Yaffle selling 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."