Tom Hill reports on a recent auction of incredible art by Peter Firmin, co-creator of classic television series such as Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss and The Clangers, by Canterbury Auction Galleries…
The legacy of Smallfilms needs little introduction. It started as the masterful collaboration between Oliver Postgate, who passed in 2008, and Peter Firmin, who passed in 2018. Best known for their beloved television series spanning the 1950s through the 1980s, children’s classics like Ivor the Engine, The Clangers, and Bagpuss were staples of childhoods across the nation. The Clangers even saw a successful 2015 revival, co-produced by Smallfilms with input from Peter Firmin and Daniel Postgate, ensuring these magical stories reached a whole new generation.
Last month, Canterbury Auction Galleries hosted a massive two-day sale featuring over 500 lots of artwork and creations unearthed from Peter Firmin’s legendary cow-shed studio.
While Peter is widely celebrated for his television illustrations and the inventive puppets built with his family’s help, he was equally prolific in print, producing over 1000 comic strips alongside his TV work. Many incredible examples of these were on display at the auction. Oliver Postgate’s animation technique focused on telling a story as simply as possible. This is a key reason their work remains so universally loved and understood. Comics are a perfect medium for this approach. Oliver would write short paragraphs, and Peter would apply his meticulous attention to detail to guide the reader visually. What I always find remarkable is that while the words and the artwork often work beautifully on their own, it’s when they come together that the true magic happens.
Peter’s first foray into the medium was an Ivor the Engine strip in 1960 for a new children’s magazine named TV Land. This very first strip went under the hammer at the auction, fetching an impressive £940. Several other strips from this early period were also available.
Following this debut, Firmin’s illustrations became a weekly fixture in Playland, Pippin, and, later, Pippin in Playland, throughout the 1960s, 70s, and well into the 80s. “Noggin the Nog”, “The Clangers”, and “Bagpuss” all made regular appearances. “Ivor the Engine” alone featured weekly in over 400 consecutive issues. While Peter may not have illustrated every single one, the auction offered some stunning examples of his work. Notably, two pieces, including a beautiful full-page illustration for the 1980 Pippin Annual, sold for £520 and £1850 respectively.
Alongside his earliest comic work, the auction also featured several strips from 1999 and 2003/2004, which are currently believed to be his final commercial comic pieces. This means the sale effectively book-ended Peter’s remarkable 44-year comic career. Spanning from 1960 to 2004, the breadth of lots offered a fascinating look at the wide range of styles he mastered over the decades.
Encompassing book illustrations and limited edition prints, the marathon auction ran for around 18 hours across the two days, raising over £400,000. In incredibly heartening news for fans, it was also announced that the Firmin family is in negotiations with The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge in Canterbury to make their Smallfilms exhibition a permanent fixture, effectively gifting the family’s collection to the nation. It is wonderful to know that the characters we love, and the legacy of Oliver and Peter’s work, are safe. And it is equally wonderful that so many fans now have a piece of original artwork to enjoy in their own homes.
Tom Hill
Can You Help the Smallfilms Archive? The Smallfilms Facebook page is actively searching for missing issues of TV Land, Pippin, Playland, and other nursery comics in the hope of filling gaps in their extensive archive. If you think you have something tucked away in the loft that can help, please reach out to them!
Head downthetubes for…
• The Smallfilms Facebook Page
Created under the protective wing and guidance of the late, great Oliver Postgate, to whose memory, spirit and works it is dedicated. Publishers of Noggin the Nog, Pogles’ Wood, Pingwings, Tottie and The Seal of Neptune/Mermaids Pearls
• The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge
Published in 2014, The Art of Smallfilms, full of pipe cleaners, cotton balls, wire and ping-pong balls, celebrates the imagination and ingenuity of two artists who shaped a generation’s childhood.
This 304-page book, which includes a preface by Postgate’s son Daniel, presents the Smallfilms archive: the puppets and cutouts from these shows (including some of the characters who didn’t quite make the cut), along with insights into how they were created. The emphatically handmade models and painstakingly drawn illustrations that came to life in the Smallfilms productions are captured here in attentive, detailed photographs. The archive is presented like “a collection of artifacts in an exhibition detailing some much-admired twentieth-century art movement, like Fluxus or Dada,” as acclaimed English stand-up comedian Stewart Lee notes in his introduction.
Working from a cowshed on a farm in Kent, Oliver Postgate (1925-2008) and Peter Firmin (born 1928) produced some of the best-loved British children’s animated television of the 1960s and 1970s. Their iconic productions include Bagpuss (originally aired in 1974), The Clangers (1969-74), Ivor The Engine (1975-77), Pogles’ Wood (1966-68) and Noggin The Nog (1959-65). They worked together from 1959 through the 1980s, creating popular, beloved characters that appealed to children and their parents alike, like the whistling, mousy Clangers (knitted by Firmin’s wife Joan in bright pink wool) in outer space, the saggy, baggy cloth cat Bagpuss and the mild-mannered Viking boy Prince Noggin. Firmin painted the backdrops and created the models, and Postgate wrote scripts, did the stop-motion filming and frequently recorded the kindly, avuncular narration.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
One of many guest posts for downthetubes.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Auctions, Books, British Comics, Comic Art, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Television
Leave a Reply