As Islamic Craftsmen often said, ‘Only God Is Perfect.’
You often hear people talking about the original geometric floor tilers and how they would leave upside down tiles in their floors on purpose. It dates back to Islamic craftsmen leaving a deliberate error in their work on religious structures stating that ‘Only God Is Perfect.’
There is little evidence however that this deliberate incorporating of imperfection ever transferred into British craft culture.
But with complex geometric tiling on large hallway spaces, it can be an easy mistake to make, especially working in the poor light and conditions of that period. So we have, from time to time, spotted original geometric floor tiling work that has these mistakes in them.
Whether it is accidental or not, it is a great ‘get out of jail excuse‘ if someone spots a mistake like this after you’re finished the tiling job.
Some perceived errors are definitely put there for people to find and more often than not, you will find them located on the left behind the right hand side of the front door (or behind whichever side the door opens too).
In the image below, you can see a break in the chain border for no reason. Accidentally on purpose? You can decide…
This was a ‘before’ shot of a hallway floor tiling restoration job we have recently completed. The finished work can be seen below.
