Mask-Pendant Necklace and Earrings Set with Turquoise and Coral

Worked silver set with turquoise and coral, this necklace is a full statement of the MATL manner, in which inlaid color carries as much of the design as the metal. That balance grew from Matilde Poulat's post-Revolution turn toward a Mexican aesthetic drawn from Pre-Conquest and pueblo art, after she left the painting she had studied at the San Carlos Academy (Morrill, p. 216).

The turquoise and coral reflect the taller's hand craft. Ricardo Salas, who collaborated so closely with his aunt that their designs cannot easily be told apart, was trained to carve and set coral, turquoise, and other stones for the firm (Morrill, p. 216).

Necklaces of this type recur in our dataset more than the scarcer one-off MATL forms, making them a recognizable and approachable example of the workshop's stone-set silver.