Mueller Mosaic Co. 6×6 Stair Riser Tile, Windsor House

Description A distinctive 6×6 pressed-relief tile by Mueller Mosaic Company of Trenton, New Jersey, salvaged from the historic Windsor House—also known as the Castle Above the Clouds—on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Installed during the home’s lavish 1930s construction, this piece formed part of an extraordinary Arts-and-Crafts–era architectural commission in which Mueller supplied both custom work and catalog designs throughout the residence. This tile corresponds directly to the published Mueller catalog as Design No. 625 S, classified as Inlaid Polychrome Faience. The catalog image shows the same stylized quatrefoil, confirming the design’s authenticity and placement within Mueller’s formal production line. The riser tile’s quatrefoil motif, sculpted in deep, fluid relief with the crisp mold definition strongly associated with Mueller’s mid-1930s work. It was salvaged from the Windsor House, an extraordinary 1930s hilltop estate built by George and Elizabeth Scholze, of the prominent Scholze Tannery family of Chattanooga. Designed during Tennessee’s brief but notable embrace of Spanish and Mediterranean Revival architecture, the residence was richly appointed with custom ironwork, elaborate stained glass, and an exceptional array of Mueller Mosaic Co. tiles placed throughout its stairways, fireplaces, fountains, and decorative wall programs. The interior featured one of the most extensive and artistically ambitious decorative tile installations of its era in the region—executed with a level of craftsmanship and expense rarely seen outside California’s major tile-producing studios. As the Windsor House now undergoes dismantling and salvage, surviving tiles such as this represent a rare, historically significant remnant of the estate’s original 1930s decorative program.