A ceramic cat made by Bradford-born, world-famous artist David Hockney was sold for £34,720 at auction yesterday.

The black, white and yellow feline was made in 1955 when Hockney, now aged 73, was still at Bradford College of Art.

Experts at Bonhams in London, who were selling a number of his works, including prints, had estimated the ceramic model to reach between £5,000 and £7,000.

A spokesman for the company said: “Though Hockney experimented with ceramics in his youth, the works rarely appear at auction and the subject matter – a rather startled-looking cat – is in interesting contrast to the artist’s famous love of dogs.”

The sale also included an inkjet computer drawing, “Winter Road near Kilham”, inspired by his return to live in his native county from California and produced in 2008. It also rocketed past the experts’ estimate of between £10,000 and £15,000 and went under the hammer for £21,080.

A rare, signed proof copy of the lithograph, ‘An Image of Celia’, in the original frame hand-painted by the artist and dating from the mid-1980s sold for £60,088. And an early lithograph ‘Fires of Furious Desire – The Most Beautiful Boy in the World’, created in 1963, was sold for £14,260, more than £8,000 more than the estimate. “Moving Focus – Walking Past Two Chairs” from the mid-1980s, which had been estimated at £20,000 to £30,000, was sold for £51,080.

The sale of 87 items, including paintings and drawings, made a total of £634,890.

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