An 1839 Daguerreotype camera that was discovered in an attic has fetched over £600,000 at an auction in Austria.
The wooden sliding-box camera, bearing Daguerre?s signature, broke all previous records, according to Vienna-based auctioneers, WestLicht.
Described as one of the first commercially produced cameras, it sold for Euros 732,000.
It was invented in Paris by French photography pioneer Louis Daguerre and produced in limited numbers by his brother-in-law Alphones Giroux.
?Until now the camera was completely unknown and has never been documented before, as it has been in private ownership in northern Germany for generations,? said WestLicht gallery director Peter Coeln.
