The outside temperature was not all that got bidders hot under the collar at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury this summer, when this Martin Brothers piece sold for a record price.

The stoneware spoon warmer, modelled as an angry rodent, sold to a private collector for a hammer price of £26,000 – and an implement of this kind made by Martin's has never made remotely that kind of money before.

A spoon warmer? It's from the days of Victorian and Edwardian dinner parties, when these unusual containers were filled with hot water to keep gravy spoons warm.

There was nothing worse than fat from the gravy congealing on the spoon, and no well-run household was without a few of these.

The spoon was part of a fine selection of 34 lots of Martin Brothers pottery, some of it duly grotesque, as befitted a company that turned out ware modelled as birds and animals so malevolent looking that they could scare little children. Only one lot failed to sell among a variety of vases, mugs, figures and jugs, as well as two other spoon warmers, and the whole section totalled £85,000.

In the past, Woolley and Wallis's 20th-century design specialist Michael Jeffery has held successful sales exclusively of Martin Brothers pottery, making the saleroom a focal point for collectors all over the world.

"Most of the pieces in this sale came from private UK collectors and that has brought some rare and good pieces on to the market," says Michael.

"This spoon warmer was in excellent condition, which obviously, coupled with its rarity, attributed to its astonishing price."

Another private collection of Martin is consigned for Woolley and Wallis's specialist art pottery sale in November.