T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Coffee Table
View Similar Items
T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Coffee Table
About the Item
- Creator:T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (Designer)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950
- Condition:Being refinished.
- Seller Location:St. Louis, MO
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU82021121878
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 for Widdicomb Walnut Finish Coffee or End TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in St. Louis, MOElegant and not very common walnut table designed by T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb, rectangular table with tapered legs with notch in at top. Model 3348, label. Similar to hi...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Side TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in St. Louis, MOT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb side table with splayed legs and cross stretchers. Walnut in dark brown finish. Model number 3335.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb NightstandBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in St. Louis, MOT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb nightstand or end table with horizontal dowel handle and single drawer on bottom. Original restored finish, can be refinished in a dark espresso ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Sideboard for WiddicombBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in St. Louis, MOThree-drawer sideboard with wood dowel handles, cabinet on the right side, designed by Gibbing for Widdicomb, walnut, currently being refinished.Category
Vintage 1950s American Sideboards
MaterialsWalnut
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Style ChestBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in St. Louis, MOWiddicomb chest with Parsons base, original Widdicomb piece refurbished / restored with some new components. Lacquered in a white snowflake finish with dark brown base. Interior shel...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsWood
- Pair of T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb ChestsBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in St. Louis, MOPair of T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb four drawer chests with dowel handles. Shown in original finish, price includes refinishing as shown, or custom color options available. ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsWalnut
- 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
- 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
- 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 Side or Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in Los Angeles, CAT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb side or coffee table in black mahogany.Category
Vintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Walnut "Bowtie" Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in Brooklyn, NYMid-Century American Modern coffee table designed by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb (ca. 1950s, USA). Composed of two solid walnut p...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Coffee Table by T.H Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb, U.S.A, 1950sBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Los Angeles, CAA vintage walnut coffee table with magazine storage designed by T.H Robsjohn-Gibbings, for Widdicomb, 1950s. In excellent newly refinished condition.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
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.
Jackie Kennedy and Sister Parish Placed This Tea Table in the White House
The former First Lady kept the Victorian antique, with an elegant chinoiserie design, for the rest of her life.