Mask Pendant

Turquoise and amethyst set into silver give this MATL pendant the workshop's two most identified stones in a compact form, the pair framed by the shop's dense, baroque metalwork. The piece reads as a concise statement of the workshop's signature palette.

Colored-stone setting was the taller's defining craft; Ricardo Salas, Poulat's nephew and collaborator, was singled out for perfecting the carving of turquoise, coral, and other stones used in the jewelry (Morrill, p. 216). The turquoise-and-amethyst pairing became one of the most recognizable MATL combinations, here at pendant scale.

Matilde Poulat introduced the "MATL" mark in 1934 as part of the post-Revolution search for a Mexican aesthetic rooted in Pre-Conquest and pueblo sources (Morrill, p. 216).