Majorica Pearls — What are Majorca Pearls and What are Mallorica Pearls Worth?
Why buy fakes? This genuine cultured freshwater pearl necklace is $495 from Seabourn Pearls.
Not long ago a friend called me. Her mother, a woman of considerable wealth and taste, had given her some pearls and she was eager to show them to me and find out what they might be worth. So one afternoon she came to my office. She sat eager and upright on the edge of her chair and breathlessly handed me two suede pouches containing pearls. I opened the pouches and poured the pearls into my hand. They felt cool and nicely weighted. One appeared to be about a 20″ strand of black pearls and the other a similar length strand of large white South Sea pearls. This was quite a gift, worth many thousands of dollars.
But something was off. A second look showed absolute uniformity of color and completely unblemished skins. The tooth test yielded a slick and slippery gloss, not the characteristic grit of secreted nacre. More telling still, the drill holes showed uneven cracks and shatter marks instead of the precise, clean hole one gets on the genuine article.
So I told my friend that her mother had given her a lovely gift of very nice Majorica pearls. “What are they worth?” she asked eagerly. Around $150-$200 each. You can imagine this was not welcome news.
Here’s the deal with Majorica pearls. First, Majorica is the most common spelling. Sometimes you’ll see Majorca or Mallorca or even Mallorica. Spelling aside, there are a lot of imitation, artificial, faux and fake pearls out there. Some of them are, for what they are, quite nice and often convincing. Majorica pearls — or Mallorica pearls — are the most famous of the infamous fake pearls. These “pearls” were originally made on the Spanish island of Majorica beginning more than 100 years ago. Manufacturing has since moved to mainland Spain.
It’s actually kind of cool how these things are made. They start with a glass bead selected to roughly match the weight of genuine cultured pearls. Next they grind fish scales and, less often, mother of pearl, into a powder. The powder is mixed with oil to create a sticky, iridescent paste. The glass bead is repeatedly dipped into the paste, dried and polished until a thick coating comprised of as many as thirty layers has been plastered around the glass. Finally the bead is chemically treated to make it hard, durable and color fast.
Majorica pearls can be quite lovely. But they are man made objects that are pearls in name only. For costume jewelry they can be a decent choice. But a fine gift for a woman or a treasured family heirloom they are not. When buying Majorica pearls expect to pay 5% – 10% of the cost of genuine cultured pearls.
And if you’re giving Majorica pearls to your daughter please do me the favor of telling her up front that they are fakes. We don’t enjoy being the bearer of bad news. The messenger has feelings, too, you know.