**Matilde Poulat/Ricardo Salas (Matl) Jewelry - HistoryBefore becoming a silversmith, Poulat studied the art of painting in Mexico City at the San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts. The well-known Mexican muralist Diego Rivera was also a student while she was studying there.
Poulat opened her silver workshop in 1934, where she began crafting jewelry using the Matl mark. She trained her nephew, Ricardo Salas, as they worked together closely in her shop. Her unique designs were very popular, and other silver workshops in nearby Taxco were known to copy her look. While these items are sometimes beautiful in their own right, they are not prized by collectors in the same way as genuine Matl-marked pieces. When Poulat died in 1960, Salas took over the business. He continued to craft jewelry in her style for many years, using the recognizable Matl mark and his own name.
