A camera bought from a Kent second-hand shop has sold for a staggering £20,000 on BBC's Antiques Road Trip - more than 300 times what was paid for it.

The episode in which the camera was auctioned will be aired today on BBC One.

The antique camera, which is from 1861 and housed in a mahogany case fitted for and containing its original photographic plate viewer and reagent bottles, was bought by antiques expert Paul Laidlaw for just £60.

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He snapped it up after spotting it at RG Scotts Furniture Mart in Margate.

The huge significance of the find became clear when camera experts confirmed that Paul had discovered a Chambre Automatique De Bertsch, an instrument that is recognised as the world’s first sub-miniature camera, invented by Paris photographer, inventor and optician Auguste Adolphe Bertsch.

At the final stop of the road trip, Paul put the camera up for auction at Lacy, Scott & Knight Auctioneers in Bury St Edmunds, causing a flurry of excitement with phone bidders from around the world competing with bids in the room and online, and the auctioneer calling for bids in thousand pound increments.

The camera finally sold for £20,000 to a private collector in Switzerland, making an incredible £19,940 profit and even smashing the auction house record.

The profits have been donated to Children in Need.

Paul Laidlaw said: "Not only Antiques Road Trip, but the whole antiques profession can be distilled down to treasure hunting.

"Everyone’s looking for the Ming vase amongst the dreary Victorian Willow pattern dinnerware, or the Stradivarius amongst the old ex-school violins.

"In this instance, I identified what had been clearly overlooked by all who’d come before me.

"In truth it was such a strange beast I can see why others had likely dismissed it as either part of something else, or just some odd piece of laboratory apparatus.

"It took me a minute to dismiss these possibilities and pin it down as a miniature camera.

"At the time I suggested it was an extremely early sub-miniature camera of circa 1861.

"What I didn’t realise is that it’s considered the first sub-miniature camera - though I was pretty much spot on with the date.

"Post filming I did a little research and immediately realised I’d bought something spectacularly rare, however, I couldn’t find records of any examples having been sold.

"I kid you not, I didn’t know whether it would sell for £2,000 or £100,000 - and neither did the auctioneer - though I considered either to be possible.

"I’ll confess I was seriously nervous on the day, hoping for glory but fearing a damp squib.

"The result of course was fantastic.

"Afterwards, it wasn’t so much the auction result that moved me, rather the thought that our daft little antiques adventure had raised so much money for Children in Need."

Antiques Road Trip is on BBC One at 4.30pm today.