T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings Lounge Chair
View Similar Items
T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings Lounge Chair
About the Item
- Creator:T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 26 in (66.04 cm)Depth: 29 in (73.66 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:Seller: F14-111stDibs: LU79485819913
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
British-born designer, interior decorator and author T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905–76) 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, he had moved to New York and set up a showroom on Madison Avenue for his modern reinterpretations of classic 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 styled he designed, Robsjohn-Gibbings was guided by simplicity and timelessness. He wanted his furniture to be lived with happily.
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CAT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Biomorphic Coffee Table, Model 1759Category
Vintage 1950s American Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsAluminum
Price Upon Request - T.H Robsjohn Gibbings Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CAT.H. Robsjohn Gibbings Coffee walnut table for Widdicomb, 1960Category
Vintage 1960s American Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
Price Upon Request - Robsjohn-Gibbings Klismos Side ChairsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CARobsjohn-Gibbings by Saridis Klismos side chairs.Category
21st Century and Contemporary Greek Chairs
MaterialsMuslin, Walnut
Price Upon Request - Robsjohn-Gibbings Coffee Table with PlanterBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CAA T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb coffee table, in walnut and brass, with a planter.Category
Vintage 1960s American Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
Price Upon Request - Paul Leidersdorf Upholstered Lounge ChairBy Paul LeidersdorffLocated in Los Angeles, CAPaul Leidersdorf aluminum / black leather upholstered lounge chair, 1965.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum
- Frits Henningsen Lounge ChairBy Frits HenningsenLocated in Los Angeles, CAFrits Henningsen leather, mahogany and brass lounge chair with nailheads from Denmark, circa 1940.Category
Vintage 1940s Danish Lounge Chairs
Price Upon Request
- T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings Lounge ChairsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in New York, NYCollectible pair of Mid-Century Modern lounge chairs featuring sinuous Maple frames, brass drumstick legs and upholstery by Romo. T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb Modern. Mint Re...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBrass
$14,400 Sale Price / set40% Off - T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Lounge ChairsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in San Francisco, CARare pair of T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings design lounge chairs for Widdicomb Furniture Co. Newly refinished walnut bull nose frames on polished brass telescoping legs. New light silver Mah...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBrass
$28,000 / set - T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Leather Lounge Chairs for WiddicombBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in Los Angeles, CAElegant modern lounge chairs designed by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings in collaboration with the famous Widdicomb Furniture company in the United States during the 1950s. These midcentury ergonomic lounge chairs...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Foam, Wood, Walnut
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, 1954 for Widdicomb lounge chairsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Camden, MEA pair of Classic and comfortable, deep seated club chairs by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb originally purchased in 1954. Elegant midcentury lounge chairs with espresso lacquered...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Walnut
- Pair of Vintage T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Lounge ChairsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Brooklyn, NYThis unique pair of his and hers chairs feature upholstered seats with simple yet shapely black lacquer frames. Exquisite modern design by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings makes a striking imp...Category
20th Century American Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Wood
$5,460 Sale Price / set27% Off - Pair of Lounge Chairs by T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Dallas, TXA pair of walnut lounge chairs with whitewashed frames designed by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb.Category
Vintage 1950s Lounge Chairs
MaterialsWalnut
$12,000 / set
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
1970s Corporate America Has Never Looked So Chic
Photographer Susan Ressler revisits the office life of decades past, whose style still resonates.
JF Chen Moves Stools Out of the Corner and into the Spotlight
In Los Angeles, dealer Joel Chen gives the often clever and always versatile seats some long-overdue attention.