Majorica pearls are fake, aren't they?

The light wasn't good today, snowy here...when we have a brighter day I'll try my hand at a few photos.

That rope in the photo above is quite striking.

Edited to add neck shot taken later (10mm):
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Pearl Dreams said:
The light wasn't good today, snowy here...when we have a brighter day I'll try my hand at a few photos.

That rope in the photo above is quite striking.
Click to expand...

I am looking forward to seeing them. I like that rope too. My grandmothers was a very graduated strand--I don't remember the sizes, but if I had to guess I would say 5-8.5mm. Not a very current look, but it will come back into style one of these days. :)
 
It isn't that the Majorca factory is making whiter fakes now, it is that all these fakes go yellow in time, as if they had spent the years hanging from the ceiling of a room frequented by very heavy smokers. It may be the solvents - like varnish on old oil paintings
 
Majorica isn't such a big brand here in Aus, but they are usually branded here as 'shell pearls' or 'shell based pearls' - obviously pearl-like, man made beads and not pearls at all.

Pattye, I have seen ringed ones, 'baroque' ones, great strands made up of various shapes of baroque beads to look even more like the real deal, rice shaped ones, and drop shaped ones... there is a factory (I am sure more in China than Majorca) that will produce anything!
That said, I have an old private customer of mine who has Pas pearls, loads of diamonds and gorgeous jewellery, who wore a 'shell based' strand to Royal Ascot - she was heading to London via visiting family in South Africa and wasn't keen to take any of her good jewellery with her! From the Royal Ascot photo, you wouldn't have known they were fakes at all...
 
pearlescence said:
It isn't that the Majorca factory is making whiter fakes now, it is that all these fakes go yellow in time, as if they had spent the years hanging from the ceiling of a room frequented by very heavy smokers. It may be the solvents - like varnish on old oil paintings
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From what I understand, Majorca pearls can yellow with age, loose nacre and can dry out--similar to real pearls unless they are well cared for. That said, most vintage pearls (including most of the vintage Mikimoto's I see on eBay) also have a creamier body tone then we look for today. Morjica pearls were also made in a creamier tone up to match the look of the strands of real pearls being sold at the time. Ther went whiter in the past until 15 years though. I just read a site that explained the whole Majorca deal yesterday.. I'll see if I can find it and post a link.
 
Nerida,

Very interesting about your friend going to Royal Ascot! Yes, I feel the Majorica brand pearls are often used by wealthy women who prefer not to travel with their "real" pieces. They have their designers make copies using CZ and the Majorica pearls. The imitation pearls coming out of China are not near the quality of the actual Majorica branded pearls.

Fine Jewelry at Nordstrom (mid 90's) carried some basic strands and earrings when I worked there and still does; I often admired them, because they were large, which I am drawn to, but I could never decide what color to purchase, gray, deep cream, white? The cream was much like pale golden SS. (At that time Miki's were Nordstrom's premier line, didn't buy them either, but did win a pair of studs.)

When initially sold, it's clear these are imitation pearls, however on the secondary market is when the problem begins, or that Grandma has treasured and referred to them as "her pearls" for so long.
 
pattye said:
Nerida,

Very interesting about your friend going to Royal Ascot! Yes, I feel the Majorica brand pearls are often used by wealthy women who prefer not to travel with their "real" pieces. They have their designers make copies using CZ and the Majorica pearls. The imitation pearls coming out of China are not near the quality of the actual Majorica branded pearls.

Fine Jewelry at Nordstrom (mid 90's) carried some basic strands and earrings when I worked there and still does; I often admired them, because they were large, which I am drawn to, but I could never decide what color to purchase, gray, deep cream, white? The cream was much like pale golden SS. (At that time Miki's were Nordstrom's premier line, didn't buy them either, but did win a pair of studs.)

When initially sold, it's clear these are imitation pearls, however on the secondary market is when the problem begins, or that Grandma has treasured and referred to them as "her pearls" for so long.
Click to expand...

Grandma's pearls were really outstanding knockoffs. I should note though that we don't know for a fact that they were majorica, just that they were imitation pearls of the highest quality and "likely" majorica.

I was down in Florida last week for my brother-in-law's wedding and I went to the festival flea market (if anyone here is from southern florida, it seems like everyone knows the place). They had booth there which sold imitation pearls and featured majorica (all new, no vintage). I thought the imitation akoyas were very convincing as were some of the south seas. I was less bowled over by the Tahitians. The black and greys were decent copies, but they can't seem to get the peacock overtone right. It's a dead give away. In fact, I have yet to see any imitation pearl really capture the overtones you find on good tahitians. Even looking at the picture of the fake "akoya" set that started this thread, that looks darn good. If you put them in a different presentation box and changed the clasp, a lot of people wouldn't know the difference (I wonder if I could tell???)
 
Majorica is the best known brand of high quality imitations, but there are others. Both Jackie Kennedy's and Barbara Bush's famous pearls were imitations made for them by Kenneth Jay Lane.

Edit: I know some imitation pearls yellow over time (like my MIL's Prestige pearls) but I do not think the Majoricas do. The older ones were cream colored because that color was more fashionable. My mother received a strand of cream colored ones from her mother in the late 1960s/early 1970s which she still wears-- all the time, in fact-- and they have not changed color. The strand I wore at my wedding (bought in 1986) were cream from the start and have not yellowed further. The 30" white strand I received as a gift in 1992 is still very white.
 
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I knew about the Barbara Bush pearls being fakes, but I didn't know that about JK. Hmmmm... I wonder if JFK would have given Marilyn glass pearls?!?!?!
 
Hi
Yes, some of the fakes are very good these days. I remember a strand of peacock elliptical blacks which I thought was a great strand at first look, but then realised that there was something a bit mechanical about the perfection. Majorcas
I wonder if that is why I have seen a subtle shift away from the perfect perfect matched rounds to pearls which are a bit quirky.
 
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