Framed Mask Cuff Bracelet

The Scored-Pattern Mask Cuff is built around a stylized pre-Columbian mask figure set into a broad silver cuff whose surface is worked with regular scored lines. The mask carries amethyst and coral cabochons as eyes and applied accents, set against the linear silver ground that surrounds the figure. The scoring is structural rather than decorative: the parallel lines give the cuff its rhythm and let the central mask emerge as the composition's anchor without applied embellishment elsewhere on the band.

Matilde Poulat's design language drew steadily from Mesoamerican religious iconography and the pre-Columbian mask tradition, often combined with the turquoise, coral, and amethyst stones that became identifying materials for her atelier. The MATL hallmark is associated above all with this combination of figural reference and stone-set color, executed with a craft sensibility that aligned MATL with Mexican folk silver traditions while maintaining the modernist composition expected of mid-century work. The mask cuff sits squarely in that program.

The piece comes out of Poulat's Mexico City workshop, distinct from the Taxco ateliers in both geography and emphasis. Where the Taxco school developed around hollowware, large jewelry, and the figural pins associated with Spratling and Aguilar, MATL's Mexico City production focused more heavily on stone-set figural pieces with religious and pre-Columbian subjects. The workshop operated through the mid-century with a small team of silversmiths under Poulat's direction, and pieces of this construction required experienced bench work to execute the scored ground without breaking the mask figure's profile.

As a collectible, the mask cuff is one of the most identifiable MATL forms. The design is documented in Penny Morrill's writing on Mexican silver and in references covering the Mexico City workshops adjacent to the Taxco school. Well-preserved examples with original stones intact are uncommon, and the form has retained collector interest as one of the surviving objects that demonstrates MATL's distinct contribution to the broader Mexican silver canon.