turquoise coral cross

This sterling cross, set with turquoise and coral, belongs to a documented but rarely seen strand of the Matl workshop's production — the devotional religious pieces that ran alongside, and shared the same aesthetic vocabulary as, the taller's celebrated wearable jewelry. Morrill records that Matilde Poulat and Ricardo Salas maintained a repertoire of religious objects within their broader output, giving form to the workshop's characteristic sensibility — rooted in Mexican folk art, baroque repoussé, and the polychrome richness of pre-Columbian ornament — within sacred iconography.

Turquoise and coral against sterling are materials deeply embedded in the Matl workshop's visual language. Morrill notes that Salas trained from boyhood in the carving of coral, turquoise, and ivory alongside the techniques of silversmithing, skills cultivated in close collaboration with his aunt. That material fluency informs this cross: the warm tones of these stones carry associations with both the palette of colonial devotional objects and the Mixtec gold jewelry that Morrill identifies as a primary inspiration for Poulat's designs.

The "Matl" mark — a registered trademark throughout Poulat's lifetime — confirms workshop origin and places the cross within the core body of the taller's documented work.