Set of cheese plates for Taylor Poore

Edgar Miller
1932
Painted porcelain (Thomas, Bavaria)
Diameter: 15 cm

The cheese plates that now hang as decoration on the Old Kitchenette wall were originally made as gifts for Taylor Poore, a close friend of Edgar Miller's during the 1920s and '30s. Taylor and his wife Madge were among the first residents of the Carl Street Studios, and came to know Miller and his cohort of artisans well. Taylor was a successful designer and art director in his own right, and a pioneer in graphics in advertising. He was also a founding member of the "Chicago 27", a group started in 1936 to show off the work of member designers and enhance Chicago’s reputation as the world’s center of printing and graphic design.

These plates are not the only ceramics Miller fashioned for Taylor. He also produced several other plates for the Poores, most notably a set of six which can be found in the Bob Horn Kitchen of the Glasner Studio. This small plate set offers beautiful examples of Miller’s finely detailed animal paintings. Small figures with minute textural embellishments are shown in profile, and include a horse, two kinds of antelope, and a lion. The initials of Taylor Poore are inscribed on the plate with the kingly lion figure.

On the backside of the plate wis an inscription: "To Taylor Poore with affection this Christmas 1932 -Edgar Miller and Olga Segeberg." Segeberg was a romantic partner of Miller's during the period between his separation from his first wife Dorothy Ann Wood and meeting his second wife, Dale Holcomb, in 1933. This plate set, like many other ones that Miller produced, became a cherished heirloom for the recipients. The Poores handed down this set to their daughter Nancy, who grew up in Old Town and who still reminisces about her colorful childhood there to this day.