Companies: The coronavirus buries in Mallorca a century of artificial pearls and their secret formula
Balearic Islands: Majorica's chemical history
Among the infinite jewels that royal families treasure,
pearls
have always been the most precious.
You just have to look back to appreciate the
pearl of Marie Antoinette
, which was auctioned in 2018 for 32 million euros, or the famous
Peregrina
, which belonged to King Felipe II of Spain and ended up
hanging around the neck of Elizabeth Taylor
who, after her death, it was also auctioned for € 9 million in 2011.
But the astute German businessmen
Eduard Hugo and Karl Hugo Heusch
were aware that other mortals also deserved to look elegant, so in 1890 they obtained the
world's first patent to manufacture artificial pearls.
So in Paris they founded the company Societé des Perles des Indes E. Heush & Co. Two years later they
created in Barcelona
another company dedicated to the manufacture of brooches, sewing needles, thimbles or zippers and in 1897 they founded Hugo Heusch & Cia to the
manufacture of pearls.
In 1902 they settled in
Manacor
(Mallorca) where
mass production
began
.
Since then,
Majorica pearls
have symbolized the metaphor of luxury, power and persuasion.
The sumun of this ingenious adventure was put by the
Hungarian chemist Géza Zsolt Mulacs,
who in 1952 created a magic formula until now secret (like the ingredients of Coca-Cola) where it is
impossible to differentiate the natural from the artificial.
Operators in a Majorica workshop in the last century EM
After more than a century, Majorica has entered bankruptcy.
The company needs liquidity.
Either someone buys it or it disappears into the sea.
In its last century of history, countless celebrities have worn its creations such as
Queen Sofia or Hillary Clinton
and have visited its Mallorcan factory, such as Emperor Hirohito or Carlos of England.
The
Heusch story
is interesting.
Such was the success of
Eduard and Karl Hugo
that they invested part of their fortune in the
El Pinar
estate
located in Paseo de Sant Gervasio, one of the noblest areas of Barcelona, where they
ordered the construction of a mansion
similar to the Petit Trianon de Versalles .
Its innumerable columns with Ionic capitals, the huge garden, the pond, the piano room and the games room were a small sample of the
power and wealth
of this
original family from Aachen
.
Unfortunately, the speculation of the 60s with the planning of Porcioles caused the
demolition of this architectural gem
to build luxury apartments in 1971.
See this post on Instagram
As an engineer, Eduard was the alma mater of the company's embryo.
He was married three times.
The first with
Camille Pommereau,
with whom he had two children, Edouard and Maurice, the second with
Louise Bernard,
with whom he had no offspring, and the third with
Antonia Fernández Rodríguez from
Murcia
, with whom he had five children, María Mercedes, Carlos, Hugo , Manuela Consuelo and Alberto Carlos.
After the founder's death in 1937, the company was inherited by his son Edouard.
See this post on Instagram
The latest celebrity to be the
image of the brand
has been Mónica Cruz, whom they hired last year to give the collections a new look.
But the wind did not blow in our favor and today the company is in danger of disappearing.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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