Early T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Model nr 11
Klini
Chaise for Saridis of Athens
About the Item
- Creator:Saridis (Manufacturer),T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 33.47 in (85 cm)Width: 57.88 in (147 cm)Depth: 25.6 in (65 cm)Seat Height: 14.18 in (36 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:Greece
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Circa 1960
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Dronten, NL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU931441647582
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
British-born designer, interior decorator and author T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings was one of the great American tastemakers in the middle decades of the 20th century. Much like Edward Wormley, Robsjohn-Gibbings was a design classicist by education and inclination, but he would come to create some of the most gracious and livable modern furnishings of the era.
Robsjohn-Gibbings studied architecture at the University of London, then held various jobs that included designing décors for passenger liners and working as the art director of a film studio. In the early 1930s, while employed by the upper-crust interior designer Charles J. Duveen, Robsjohn-Gibbings experienced an epiphany during a visit to the British Museum.
Examining the furniture depicted on ancient Greek ceramics — lithe stools and klismos chairs — he realized that he had found a design touchstone. By 1936, Robsjohn-Gibbings had moved to New York and set up a showroom on Madison Avenue for his modern reinterpretations of Classical Greek designs. Aided by contacts he’d developed while working with Duveen, he quickly established a clientele that included Elizabeth Arden, Doris Duke and Thelma Chrysler Foy.
Through his writings for magazines and books, Robsjohn-Gibbings earned a public following and was established as an urbane arbiter of taste. From 1943 to 1956, he produced an understated line of modernist furnishings for Widdicomb, which included one of the icons of the period: the tiered, biomorphic Mesa coffee table (1951). Robsjohn-Gibbings moved to Athens, Greece, in 1966, and created a new line of antiquity-inspired pieces for the firm Saridis. The series turned out to be his swan song.
Collectors’ interest in Robsjohn-Gibbings was reignited in the 1980s when the 200-plus pieces from his 1936–38 commission for the Bel-Air estate of Los Angeles socialite Hilda Boldt Weber — pared-down neoclassical pieces rendered in blond wood (with the occasional flourish) — came on the market. (Up until then, the collection had remained in the house, despite its having changed hands several times.)
But his work for Widdicomb remains his most widely known, appreciated for its elegance and generous proportions. Robsjohn-Gibbings despised the stern aesthetic associated with his Bauhaus contemporaries, and a keynote of his modernist pieces is that they have no sharp angles. His chair and sofa frames, table legs and even many cabinets feature softly contoured edges. In whatever style he designed, Robsjohn-Gibbings was guided by simplicity and timelessness. He wanted his furniture to be lived with happily.
Find antique T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings coffee tables, dining tables, credenzas and other furniture on 1stDibs.
You May Also Like
Vintage 1960s Greek Classical Greek Chaise Longues
Leather, Walnut
Vintage 1960s Greek Greek Revival Chairs
Leather, Wood
20th Century European Footstools
Walnut
Vintage 1950s British Chaise Longues
Bouclé, Mahogany
Vintage 1950s Chaise Longues
Maple
Vintage 1960s Greek Greek Revival Chairs
Leather, Walnut
Vintage 1960s Greek Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Leather, Walnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Chaise Longues
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Chaise Longues
Bouclé, Hardwood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Walnut
More From This Seller
View AllVintage 1960s Greek Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Leather, Walnut
Vintage 1960s Greek Mid-Century Modern Stools
Leather, Walnut
Vintage 1970s Danish Scandinavian Modern Chaise Longues
Stainless Steel
Vintage 1950s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Nickel
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chaise Longues
Stainless Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Wool, Walnut
