Mosaics, designed and installed

A short history of mosaic

Around 3000 BC

The first mosaics

At Uruk in Mesopotamia, at the end of the fourth millennium BC, walls were covered in thousands of painted clay cones pressed in to make patterns. Examples are in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin.

Late 300s BC

Greek pebbles

In the late fourth century BC the floors of Pella in Macedonia were laid with river pebbles, including a famous lion hunt from the House of Dionysos.

From around 120 BC

Roman tesserae

The Romans cut stone and glass into small cubes called tesserae, larger for floors and tiny for pictures. The Alexander Mosaic from the House of the Faun at Pompeii, laid around 120 to 100 BC with over a million pieces, is now in Naples.

From around AD 75

Roman Britain

Fishbourne in West Sussex, built around AD 75, was the largest Roman residence in Britain, and its mosaics include Cupid on a Dolphin. Lullingstone in Kent has its Bellerophon and Europa floors, and Bignor in West Sussex has the longest Roman corridor mosaic in Britain, around 24 metres.

400s and 500s

Ravenna and Byzantium

In the fifth and sixth centuries Ravenna was covered in glass and gold mosaic, from the starry blue vault of Galla Placidia, around 425, to the portraits of Justinian and Theodora in San Vitale, consecrated in 547. The city’s monuments have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996.

From 1094

Venice

St Mark’s Basilica was consecrated in 1094 and its domes were covered in gold mosaic, mostly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In 1308 a furnace on Murano was approved to make mosaic glass for St Mark’s, and Venetian glass, called smalti, is still made for mosaic today.

1900 to 1914

London and Barcelona

From 1902 the chapels of Westminster Cathedral in London were laid with Venetian smalti. In Barcelona, Antoni Gaudí and Josep Maria Jujol covered Park Güell between 1900 and 1914 in trencadís, mosaic made from broken tiles.

Where to see mosaic in Britain

Mosaic splashbacks, bathrooms and floors

Splashbacks. A mosaic splashback is a small area with a big effect behind a hob, sink or bar. Bathrooms and showers. Mosaic follows curves and shower floors that large tiles cannot, and the extra grout lines add grip underfoot. Floors. Entrance halls and hallways, where a mosaic floor or inlaid border greets everyone who comes in. Feature walls and pools. Mosaic wall art and pool designs that are part of the building rather than hung on it.

Glass, marble or stone mosaic

Glass mosaic is non porous, so it is the usual choice for pools, showers and wet areas, and it carries strong colour and shimmer. Marble mosaic is natural stone, warmer and softer in colour, and it needs sealing in wet or busy areas. Stone and ceramic mosaics sit between the two. Tell us where the mosaic is going and how it will be used, and we will talk you through what suits it before you spend anything.