Mueller Mosaic Co. 6×6 Border Pattern 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 is a segment of the playful border pattern salvaged out of the ballroom, sculpted in deep, fluid relief with the crisp mold definition strongly associated with Mueller’s mid-1930s work. This tile was salvaged from the ballroom of the Windsor House (pictured), 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.