Men-Orka Vintage Japanese Pearls

[Mespo2006]

Has anyone ever heard of Men-Orka pearls. I recently bought a necklace. It is knotted with 14k clasp is came in a green pearl pouch, inside a box stamped Japan.

 

[CortezPearls]

Hello Mespo2006...wow...never heard of Men-Orka pearls before...could it be a misspelling of a difficult to pronounce non-English word?
I seem to recognize it as "Menorica" which is yet another name that has been used for imitation (faux) pearls that all fall under the "Mallorca" brandname: Majolica, Malloricas, Mejoricas, Menoricas...
This is my best guess, but let us see if we have more opinions amongst our great community of Pearl Experts.

PS: Got me thinking about Menorah Pearls... Hannukah is upon us!

 

[BWeaves]

I've never heard of Men-Orka pearls before. I did a little googling, and of course video games with guns came up. Then I found this:

https://poshmark.com/listing/Vintage-MenOrka-Pearl-Necklace-Original-Box-5cb4f16c19c157852e1648d5

The clasp is the least expensive gold clasp you can buy for pearls. The pearls look like imitation pearls to me. And the price of $35 seems to also imply the pearls are imitation, too. Of course, I could be wrong, too.

 

[CortezPearls]

I agree 100% with you BWeaves! They scream IMITATION. Great sleuth work BTW!

 

[CortezPearls]

Just wanted to post the image of the necklace on the link that BWeaves shared with us, in case it disappears from the Internet!
Some of the pearls don't seem perfectly round (kind of ovalish) but it could be a photo defect...anyone else have an opinion?

Have a great day!