A couple of years ago we saw the creation of diamond-covered chess and backgammon sets by Bernard Maquin. The sets have surfaced again, this time they are part of a Tzoffey’s 1818 Auction House sale, to be held during the International Colored Stone Association (ICA) Congress on May 9 in Dubai. The Magnificent Jewels auction features diamond and colored stone jewelry as well as unmounted stones such as a rough ruby, necklace-ready sets of matched emeralds and sapphires and large loose stones such as a 22.23-carat tsavorite from Africa. The auction items will be on display at the Al Murooj Rotana Hotel and Suites in Dubai’s business district during the week of the congress.

The backgammon set uses 61,082 black, white and yellow diamonds with a total weight of 2071.48 carats. The diamond, gold and silver set took over 10,000 hours of labor to complete and is estimated to sell for $650,000-950,000.

[via National Jeweler]