The Mikimoto Pearl Necklace No.1 is the company's flagship classic strand, a single-row necklace of round Japanese Akoya cultured pearls strung in either a uniform or a graduated arrangement and finished with a small white-gold or platinum clasp. It is sold today as a continuing reference in the Mikimoto catalogue and is the piece against which any Akoya strand from any house is most often informally compared. The article that follows describes the conventional specification of the No.1 strand as it has stood, with minor variations, since the late 1950s, when the post-war Akoya industry achieved the consistency of size and lustre that the design assumes.

Specification

The classic Mikimoto No.1 is a uniform strand, typically presented in lengths of forty to forty-five centimetres for choker or princess proportions, with longer matinée and opera lengths offered to special order. The pearls themselves are round Akoya, drilled and knotted between each pearl with silk thread, a finishing detail that protects each pearl from rubbing against its neighbours and that prevents the loss of the entire strand should the thread part. Pearl diameters are graded in half-millimetre increments, with the most commonly seen sizes for the No.1 falling in the seven-and-a-half to eight-millimetre and the eight-to-eight-and-a-half-millimetre brackets. Larger sizes, up to ten millimetres, are produced but are increasingly rare and are priced accordingly.

Mikimoto's house grading describes pearls in the No.1 as exhibiting the high lustre and fine surface that the company markets as its A1 grade and above. In gemmological terms the strand is required to show what the GIA's Pearl Description System calls excellent or very good lustre, with surfaces clean to lightly blemished, body colour falling in the white-to-cream range, and the characteristic rosé or silver overtone of fine Akoya. Matching for size, shape, and colour across the strand is a substantial part of the work that distinguishes a Mikimoto No.1 from a less expensive equivalent.

Origins of the design

The single-strand Akoya necklace is older than the Mikimoto No.1 designation; it emerged as the principal commercial form of the cultured pearl in the 1920s and was the form in which Mikimoto first reached Western markets after the 1924 Paris court ruling permitted the sale of cultured pearls subject to disclosure. The post-war No.1 designation formalised what had become the company's house standard during the boom in Akoya production in the 1950s and early 1960s, when Mie Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture were producing pearls in volumes and with a consistency of lustre that have never been quite matched since. The strand has remained in continuous production through the subsequent decades, surviving the competitive pressure first of larger South Sea pearls and then of Chinese freshwater production.

Trade significance

For the modern pearl trade the Mikimoto No.1 functions as a benchmark. Pearl buyers, particularly outside Japan, often describe a fine Akoya strand as being of "Mikimoto quality" in shorthand for the combination of high lustre, clean surface, careful matching, and silk knotting that the No.1 represents. The shorthand is imprecise, since pearls of equivalent quality are produced by other Japanese houses and by independent farms, but it indicates the cultural weight of the Mikimoto designation. The strand is also a useful pedagogical reference: a buyer learning to grade Akoya can do worse than to compare a candidate strand against a Mikimoto No.1, since the latter sets a clear and consistent point of reference for what fine Akoya should look like at a given size.

Care and longevity

Akoya nacre is thinner than that of South Sea or freshwater pearls, and a No.1 strand requires the same care as any fine Akoya: protection from cosmetics, perfumes, and household chemicals, regular cleaning with a soft damp cloth, and periodic restringing every two to five years depending on wear. Mikimoto offers restringing as a service through its boutiques and through the Tokyo and New York workshops. With proper care a strand purchased in the present generation will pass to a subsequent one without significant loss of beauty, which is part of the design's appeal as a piece of inheritable jewellery.

Place in the Mikimoto catalogue

The No.1 sits within a wider Mikimoto catalogue that today extends to South Sea and black Tahitian pearl strands, multi-row necklaces, and elaborate jewelled pieces. It nonetheless remains the canonical Mikimoto reference, and the piece in which the connection between the company and the original cultured Akoya pearl is most directly preserved. For a Skyjems client looking to acquire a single piece of fine cultured pearl jewellery with a clear pedigree, the No.1 strand or a comparable independent equivalent matched to the same standards is the natural starting point.