Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Pioneering self-taught industrial designer, writer and teacher Gilbert Rohde helped define the earliest phase of modernism in the United States. He is one of the most influential figures of 20th-century design and is credited with helping legendary mid-century modern furniture manufacturer Herman Miller avert financial disaster during the Great Depression.
Born in New York City, Rohde studied painting at the Art Students League after high school. He found lucrative employment, first as a political cartoonist and then as a catalog illustrator for American department stores. He was particularly enthralled with drawing furnished interiors.
Rohde began to design furniture in his spare time. He traveled to the Bauhaus school in Germany and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, and drew on the Art Deco movement and the work of designers such as Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann in his early pieces. Rohde opened his own studio in 1929 and secured private and commercial commissions. His clients would come to include formidable furniture makers Heywood-Wakefield and Troy Sunshade, and his innovative bentwood furnishings for them were practical and intended for the modern consumer.
In 1930, Rohde met Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree in the company’s Michigan showroom during a business trip. By then, Rohde had a long list of prominent clients and his furniture had been exhibited in museums and galleries. Herman Miller was weathering a devastating slowdown in business, and the American furniture industry had generally been hit hard by the Great Depression.
Rohde boldly informed De Pree that the brand’s furniture had become outdated, which was part of the reason the company was in financial jeopardy. Homes had become smaller and could no longer accommodate the large Gothic– and Victorian–style furnishings and traditional reproductions of period bedroom suites that Herman Miller was offering at the time, Rohde explained.
Rohde secured a contract to design for the Michigan manufacturer. He championed the use of exotic woods and tubular steel, and created streamlined, unadorned bedroom furniture for Herman Miller — collections that included convenient vanities, which were unconventional pieces for De Pree’s company back then.
In 1933, Rohde oversaw the design of two bedrooms featuring sleek Herman Miller furniture — including innovative storage pieces he designed — as part of an International–style exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The installation garnered acclaim for De Pree’s brand all over the world and afforded Rohde the opportunity to execute on his visionary ideas in front of a global audience. Rohde later designed lighting, seating and more for Herman Miller and was extensively involved in the company's marketing strategy and other areas of the business.
In 1942, Herman Miller, anticipating a postwar economic boom, began to produce office furniture for the first time, but its legacy is in the home. Working with legendary designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard, the manufacturer fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call mid-century modern style.
Find vintage Gilbert Rohde coffee tables, lounge chairs, table lamps and other items on 1stDibs.
1940s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Brass
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Stainless Steel
1940s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Paldao
1930s American Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Cork
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish British Colonial Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Bamboo, Cane
1950s North American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Birdseye Maple
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Metal
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Metal, Chrome
1770s English George III Antique Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Mahogany
21st Century and Contemporary English Georgian Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Walnut, Burl, Satinwood
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese George III Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Mahogany
1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Glass, Paldao
21st Century and Contemporary Chinese Modern Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Lucite, Wood, Burl
21st Century and Contemporary British Georgian Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Satinwood, Olive, Ebony, Mahogany
1940s American Hollywood Regency Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary British Georgian Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Satinwood, Olive, Rosewood
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Steel
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Mahogany
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Wood
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Gilbert Rohde Furniture
Holly