Scrollwork Pendant with Coral

A single coral-set pendant distills the MATL manner to one wearable focus: warm stone framed by the workshop's characteristically dense, ornamented silver. The form reads as a compact statement of the polychrome idiom the taller built its reputation on.

Coral was among the stones the MATL workshop carved and set with particular skill; Ricardo Salas, Poulat's nephew and close collaborator, was noted for perfecting the cutting of coral, turquoise, and other materials (Morrill, p. 216). The pendant's baroque surface belongs to the same repoussé tradition that shaped the shop's work from its earliest years (Morrill, p. 83).

Matilde Poulat introduced the "MATL" mark in 1934 as part of the post-Revolution search for a distinctly Mexican aesthetic. The stone setting places this among the workshop's more decorative pieces.