Mosaic began with the simplest of shapes. The earliest Greek mosaics were made of natural river pebbles, set by hand into floors. By Roman times, craftsmen were cutting stone into small cubes called tesserae, a word linked to the Greek for "four", after their four corners. The square is, quite literally, where stone mosaic began.

From there, shape became a language. Roman builders laid stone and brick in a zigzag they called opus spicatum, "spiked work", after the ear of wheat. We know it today as herringbone. Roman artisans also developed opus sectile, stone cut into larger shapes and fitted together like a puzzle, a technique that led to the inlaid geometric floors of medieval Italy.

Across the Islamic world, geometry reached new heights. The interlocking stars, arabesques and curved forms of the Alhambra in Granada and the tilework of Fes in Morocco still shape how designers think about pattern today. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, small hexagon and round mosaics became the signature of clean, bright bathrooms, a look that returned with the revival of classic interiors.

Every shape in our collection belongs to that lineage. What has changed is the hand that reframes it: finer cuts, honed and tumbled finishes, and stone chosen for how it will age.