Edgar Miller Wallpaper Shop

In the late 1940s, Edgar Miller was commissioned by Chicago-based wallpaper manufacturer Bassett & Vollum to design a series of wallpapers for national distribution. Miller designed the charming Tower Court Collection in an assortment of unique themes and graphic styles. Each wallpaper design, originally created by the artist, was then traced and cut into stencils (or screens) for each layer of color used in a variety of custom colorways to bring the image to life. Miller’s designs were featured in numerous interior design magazines and advertisements and decorated the walls of thousands of homes across the United States. 

Edgar Miller Legacy is proud to offer new prints of Edgar Miller’s wallpaper designs, hand-made by Bassett & Vollum. These prints can be displayed as art on your walls to brighten up any room!

View & Purchase a Selection of Edgar Miller’s Wallpaper Prints Below

Tower Court Collection History and Info Below

Edgar Miller’s Tower Court Collection

The Normandy House

The Normandy House was a French-style restaurant and tavern which sat directly facing the Chicago Water Tower and Michigan Avenue, and where Miller was a resident artist from the 1930s to the 1950s. Miller designed and executed all of the art in the restaurant, including windows, furniture, menus, placemats, and more, and he regularly re-painted the walls with his fantastic, imaginative pictures of French bucolic life.

Many social gatherings occurred at the popular downtown restaurant for all kinds of artists, designers, architects, and socialites. A renowned Chicago graphic designer, Susan Jackson Keig, fondly remembered Edgar Miller in a 2017 interview with Edgar Miller Legacy. Keig described how the annual meeting of the Society of Typographic Arts was regularly held at The Normandy House and always concluded with a tour of Edgar Miller’s latest creations, led by the artist himself.

Bassett & Vollum

The popular wallpaper company Bassett & Vollum was founded in 1936 by Emile Bassett and George Vollum. They and their successor, a gregarious businessman named George Funke, would have also been among the frequent diners at The Normandy House. It is very likely that the owners of Bassett & Vollum first saw examples of Edgar Miller’s work in the form of painted murals and other installations at The Normandy House, and then commissioned Miller to create his very own wallpaper collection.

Founded in Chicago, today the company is based in Davenport, Iowa.

The Tower Court Collection

Miller’s initial series of about ten wallpapers, entitled The Tower Court Collection, were released in the late 1940s and appeared in numerous trade magazines, advertisements, and showroom displays across the United States. A second wallpaper collection of even more Miller designs was released shortly thereafter, indicating the popularity of Miller’s style. The artist also produced dozens of other watercolor mockups for designs that were never printed commercially. The exact amount of Edgar Miller designs that were ultimately sold by Bassett & Vollum remains unknown, but vintage photographs of Miller’s wallpaper designs appear in ads and articles of the era featuring famous celebrities like Doris Day and Ida Lupino, indicating they were extremely popular. 

The Process

Bassett & Vollum still makes hand-made, screen-printed wallpaper derived from the thousands of original patterns and designs held in the company’s archive. In partnership with the manufacturer, and exclusive to Edgar Miller Legacy, these Tower Court Collection prints are sold individually for you to enjoy in your home or office as posters or framed art. These wallpaper prints measure just over a yard long and are manually printed using hand-cut stencils (or screens) and vibrant solvent-based inks for durability and long lasting color. Because the original printing screens had deteriorated over time and use, new screens for the designs were painstakingly re-cut by hand based off of the original master designs by Edgar Miller. Hand-printed wallpapers take time and patience to produce, resulting in a beautifully layered look of real ink on paper.

All wallpaper prints are custom-produced by Bassett & Vollum using hand-cut stencils/screens.
To commission full rolls of Edgar Miller-designed wallpaper to use for wall treatments in your home or business, please visit Bassett & Vollum or contact them at bassettandvollum@gmail.com.
All proceeds from sales of wallpaper prints from the EML shop directly support Edgar Miller Legacy.