A pair of manacled mammals caught the imagination of art fans at an auction.

This extremely rare pair of Meissen figures of red squirrels caused quite a stir in the saleroom at Bellmans Auctioneers, in Wisborough Green, last Wednesday when they met their hammer price of £45,000.

Auctioneer and ceramics specialist Simon Garner began by warning spectators that they would “likely never see such objects together as a pair again”, before they were sold to general applause in the enthralled saleroom.

The squirrels were modelled c.1750 by J. J. Kandler, Court Sculptor to Augustus the Strong from 1730.

Managing director of Bellmans Auctioneers Jonathan Pratt said: “It is extraordinary to think that they were made in mid-18th century Saxony, by perhaps the most famous of all porcelain modellers, and 260 years later they reappear at a sale in Sussex and sell for £45,000”.

They were sold by a private seller to a prominent London dealer.