A set of dominoes owned by the late Queen Victoria are set to go up for auction.
The former monarch – who reigned over the United Kingdom from 1837 until her death in 1901 – well documented her love for the simple game of dominoes in her daily journals which she kept throughout her life, and now a set of the ornate rectangular tiles are due to go under the hammer at an auction in Geneva.
Auction house Christie’s will auction the item in the Swiss city on May 19, where it is expected to fetch between $300,000 and $500,000.
The item description on Christie’s website reads: "This exceptional gold and enamel musical box and its set of solid gold dominos is almost certainly unique, no other examples are known publicly in either private collections or museums worldwide. In addition it has the most illustrious and fascinating provenance.
"When consigned for sale at Christie’s in 1974 by a direct descendant of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the present set of gold dominos and musical box had, by family tradition, once been the property of the Queen herself and had subsequently been given by her to her youngest son Prince Leopold from whom they had since descended in the family from the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Leopold’s son and Queen Victoria’s grandson."
The ornate set is housed in an 18K gold enamel and pearl-set musical domino box, and features 28 18K gold enamel and pearl-set rectangular domino pieces.
Christie’s will auction the set in Geneva on May 19.
Queen Victoria’s dominoes to be auctioned
