DHAKA: An extremely rare Leica camera with an estimated value of around $1.2m (£750,000) is set to be auction in Hong Kong on Friday.

The gold-plated Leica Luxus II, dating from 1932, is one of only four of its kind ever made.

Its Welsh owner, who died last year, showed it on BBC TV`s Antiques Roadshow programme in 2001, when its value was estimated at £5,000 ($8,100).

Experts say the camera could fetch more than double its value at auction.

Bonhams auction house, which is conducting the sale, said the whereabouts of the other three Leica Lexus IIs were not known.

The camera, which bears the serial number 88840, is gold plated and encased in fake lizard skin.

It comes in a crocodile-skin case, which Bonhams said had appeared in Leica adverts but was "the first example ever to come to light".

World record

The camera was given to a British enthusiast from Bridport in Wales after World War Two.

He used it for several decades before taking it to be valued on Antiques Roadshow.

Leica cameras first went on sale in 1925. Compact, lightweight and modern-looking, its models became popular compared with the heavier box cameras in circulation at the time, and quickly revolutionised photography.

Last year, a 1923 Leica 0-Series sold at auction in Vienna for 2.16m euros (£1.74m or $2.78m at the time) setting a new world record for a camera.

Source: BBC
BDST: 1016 HRS, NOV 22, 2013
RS/BSK