Rago Auctions

Matilde Poulat was educated as an artist and designer before turning her talents toward jewelry-making in the early 1930s. She signed her work “MATL,” combining her name with the Aztec word for water, “atl.” Poulat’s pieces are unique, described by William Spratling as “intensely Mexican and intensely her own,” with exceptional workmanship and an air of opulence and whimsy. By the 1940s, there was an intense demand for her work and among her admirers were her art school friends, Diego Rivera and his wife, Frida Kahlo, who became collectors of her jewelry. Following Poulat’s death in 1960, her designs were produced by her nephew, Ricardo Salas, and now Omar Gabriel Tadeo Juárez (fourth generation of the Poulat family) continues the jewelry-making tradition. Though no photographs seem to exist of Poulat, and little is known about her early life, her legacy as a jewelry designer and craftswoman lives on in her sumptuous, finely-made creations.