Today I would like to invite you to follow me through the centuries to explore a “classic” pattern in the best sense of the word. It is a three-color pattern of rhombuses that gives the three-dimensional impression of stacked cubes.
We encounter it for the first time in Greek floor mosaics from the island of Delos from the second century BC. However, it was found fifteen times during excavations there, which means that the pattern was already known and popular back then.
It also appears as a floor in Pompeii, the Roman city that was buried in 79 AD due to the eruption of Vesuvius. In the “House of the Faun”, we find the cubes made this time using the so-called Opus sectile technique, in which larger stone slabs were cut to form the pattern.
With a big leap in time, we now reach the France of the Sun King, Louis XIV. Here we find the cubes as parquet patterns. They were so popular during his reign in the 17th century that they were also known as “Louis cubes.”
Another hundred years later, the pattern had made it from floor to furniture. The marquetry was now called “cubes d'Oeben” after a famous carpenter. Jean Francois Oeben made furniture for Louis XVI for his castles from 1761 to 1763 and often used the geometric pattern on the side walls.
In the 19th century, the cube, in this case called the “Necker cube”, helped decipher the human vision. The Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker published in 1832 a drawing of a cube in which the observer sees the object either from above or from below.
From 1851, the design called “tumbling blocks” became one of the most famous American quilt patterns.
But back from quilts to the floor. In the 1886 catalog from Villeroy & Boch, we find the pattern on hexagonal ceramic floor tiles, the Mettlacher plates.
The pattern comes in two sizes; one shows a cube on a tile, while the other version shows three cubes per tile.
MOSÁICO offers this timeless pattern in two different formats on square or hexagonal cement tiles. Sample 112 can be seen here in the dining room of a Swiss hotel.
The following compilation shows an impression of how different color combinations work.
By the way, the traditional color scheme in white — gray — black on the far left is included in our favorites catalog. This means that the tiles are in stock and will be delivered to you faster. You can also order them via our online shop.
Pattern 113 represents smaller cubes. Here, too, I show possible color combinations. Of course, all tiles can also be produced in any color combination you require from our range of 36 standard colors. There are therefore no limits to your imagination. Even after over 2000 years, the design has lost none of its appeal and is suitable for entrance, kitchen, office or bathroom, for example. Even a border like in ancient Greece can be added.
Hexagonal tiles represent another unusual option for floor design. Here too, the pattern is available in large (pattern 2052) or smaller version (pattern 264).
Doesn't the tile that one of the masters here proudly holds up look three-dimensional?
