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A Matl bracelet carries the workshop's dense, decorative silverwork onto the wrist. The Matl idiom is rooted in a deliberately Mexican aesthetic, drawing on folk and Pre-Conquest sources, and its surfaces typically read as richly worked and figural.
Matilde Poulat introduced the Matl mark in 1934 after training as a painter at the San Carlos Academy, and her designs were part of the post-Revolutionary search for a national art (Morrill, p. 216). She found inspiration in the Mixtec gold jewelry discovered in 1932 at Monte Alban, and her recurring motifs of doves, flowers, and tiny bells recall Mexican folk art (Morrill, p. 216).
The workshop's craftsmanship in silver and in carved stone was considerable; Ricardo Salas, Poulat's nephew and close collaborator, perfected the carving of coral, turquoise, and other stones used in the jewelry (Morrill, p. 216).
Matl bracelets are encountered at market with some regularity and remain a clear expression of the workshop's folk-rooted style.
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