A PHOTOGRAPH album thought to be the oldest surviving in the world has been rediscovered, revealing pictures dating back to the early years of Queen Victoria's reign in the 1840s.

Now it is expected to make more than £30,000 when it comes up for auction in Swindon.

The 200 calotype prints, made less than a decade after the invention of photography and produced in 1848 by the Edinburgh Calotype Club, the world's first photographic society, show members posing in their best clothes, scenes from the city and landscapes from around Scotland.

The album was discovered by chance after lying in obscurity in a private British collection for more than 120 years and has been described by historians as a "magical" glimpse into the birth of photography.

It was found earlier this year by Nathan Winter, a specialist at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Old Town, while examining the private collection of a client. It is to be auctioned on December 12.