Fringe Collar Necklace with Turquoise and Amethyst

Set with turquoise, amethyst, and coral, this silver necklace brings the MATL workshop's full polychrome palette to bear, the three stones playing together across the dense, baroque metalwork. The piece shows the shop's colored-stone idiom at its richest around the neck.

The carving and setting of colored stones was a defining MATL craft; Ricardo Salas was noted for perfecting the cutting of coral, turquoise, and other materials used in the jewelry (Morrill, p. 216). A necklace carrying all three stones makes that strength the center of the design.

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