ANTIQUE buyers from around the world were flocking to an art auction at Dorchester today for rare treasures that could fetch £500,000 in total.

In the last arts sale of the year for Duke’s Auction House the highlight will be the Reeves Oriental collection which has attracted bidders from Hong Kong.

Yesterday a rare collection of early coins attracted many potential bidders for what auctioneer Gary Batt called an ‘interesting lot.’ Mr Batt said: “We had a successful start to the two-day auction and I hope today will be even more successful for our last auction of the year.”

From 11am, Chinese treasures hidden from public view for almost 200 years, were going for sale and buyers and museums have shown a lot of interest.

The collection originally belonged to John Reeves – a renowned tea merchant in China 200 years ago – and have remained in the same family since they were bought in the Georgian period.

Another unusual item in the sale is an elephant’s tusk discovered by a Weymouth plumber and thought to be from the wreckage of the ship Hope that sank off of Chesil Beach in 1749.