Early Biomorphic Coffee Table by Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb
View Similar Items
Early Biomorphic Coffee Table by Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb
About the Item
- Creator:T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Width: 33 in (83.82 cm)Depth: 54 in (137.16 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Maple,Uranium Glass
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Lovely original vintage condition. Wear commensurate with age and use.
- Seller Location:Coronado, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU8105232987822
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.
- Early Poul Kjærholm "PK 61" Coffee Table for E. Kold Christensen, 1950sBy Poul KjærholmLocated in Coronado, CAAn early and collectible PK-61 coffee table designed by Poul Kjaerholm and made by E. Kold Christensen in Denmark, circa 1950s. The table features a satin-chrome steel frame with the...Category
Vintage 1950s European Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSteel
- Early Production "CTW" Molded Plywood Coffee Table by Charles & Ray EamesBy Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Coronado, CAA delightful early production molded plywood "CTW" coffee table by Charles & Ray Eames circa mid 1950s. A wonderful, lightweight design with curvy contours and an overall soft and ge...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsPlywood
- Vladimir Kagan Early and Rare Custom Tile Top Coffee Table, 1940sBy Vladimir KaganLocated in Coronado, CAAn early and exceptional custom coffee table designed and built by Vladimir Kagan in his New York City workshop in the late 1940s. This is the only example of this design we have see...Category
Vintage 1940s American Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Sculptural Freeform Coffee Table in the Manner of Isamu Noguchi, 1970sBy Isamu NoguchiLocated in Coronado, CAA stunning, sculptural, freeform coffee table with articulating, solid mahogany bases and original uranium green glass. Likely crafted in the 1970s, by an unknown designer. The base...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany, Glass
- Mexican Modernist Iron and Sculpted Blown Glass Catchall Coffee TableLocated in Coronado, CAA sublime and unusual modernist coffee table which we believe was made in Mexico in the 1970s. Beautiful welded, steel base with crisscrossing elements. The top consists of a large h...Category
Vintage 1970s Mexican Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBlown Glass
- Antique Japanese 'Shou Sugi Ban' Low Cedar Coffee Table, 19th CenturyLocated in Coronado, CAAn extraordinary 19th century antique Japanese low table constructed from an incredible and substantial, old growth cedar plank, with 4 out swept legs. This piece was made in Japan, ...Category
Antique 19th Century Japanese Meiji Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsCedar
- T H Robsjohn Gibbings coffee table for WiddicombBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CATraditional and elegant coffee table by Robsjohn Gibbings.Category
Vintage 1950s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- Coffee Table by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for WiddicombBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Brooklyn, NYLow black ebonized coffee table on a X-shaped base by British born designer and interior decorator T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905–1976). Please confirm item location (NY or NJ) with de...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
$1,645 Sale Price30% Off - T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Berlin, DETriangular table by Gibbings for Widdicomb, 1950s, USA in original vintage condition. T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings was a furniture designer who became famous for his modernist designs in ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Biomorphic Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Boston, MAT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb biomorphic coffee table. Solid walnut sculptural base showing beautiful wood grain character and original thick .75" glass with green siding. Uni...Category
1990s Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Rare T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in East Hampton, NYA rare midcentury design by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings coffee table with center magazine holder box which is removable. A rich dark finish and black matte magazine box...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Square Mahogany Coffee TableBy Widdicomb Furniture Co., T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Bainbridge, NYT. H. Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb square mahogany Coffee Table. Side Table. Circa 1960. Featuring a solid board surface, beautifully grained Mahogany veneer, with solid turned ma...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany