Robsjohn-Gibbings Lacquered Chest of Drawers
View Similar Items
Robsjohn-Gibbings Lacquered Chest of Drawers
About the Item
- Creator:T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 32.5 in (82.55 cm)Width: 54 in (137.16 cm)Depth: 22.25 in (56.52 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1959
- Condition:The piece dates to the mid-20th century but has been fully restored with a piano lacquer. There is very minor wear to the inside of drawers.
- Seller Location:Pasadena, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU251936544333
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.
- German Baroque Chest of DrawersLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is a good example of a German serpentine-front inlaid walnut and Circassian walnut chest of drawers that dates to the first half of the 18th century. The smaller proportions of ...Category
Antique Early 18th Century German Baroque Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
$5,560 Sale Price20% Off - George III Mahogany Chest of DrawersLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is a classic George III mahogany with satinwood banding chest of drawers with a two-over-two configuration. The perfect and elegant proportions of the chest make this this piece...Category
Antique Late 18th Century English George III Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
- Antique Levantine Inlaid Chest of DrawersLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is a superb example of a Levantine Chest of Drawers. All exposed surfaces of the chest are finely detailed in inlaid bone, ebony and shell. The inlay takes the form of abstract ...Category
Early 20th Century Moroccan Islamic Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBone, Shell, Wood, Ebony
- Pair Mid-Century Carved Chests of DrawersLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is a unique pair of Mid-Century beautifully carved chests of drawers. The chest are carved in high relief tropical leaves which have been high-lighted in a silvery gold. These a...Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests o...
MaterialsLacquer
$13,500 / set - French 18th Century Provincial Chest of DrawersLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is a fine example of a mid-18th century Louis XV provincial serpentine walnut chest of drawers. The chest is in overall very good condition. The chest features a serpentine fron...Category
Antique Mid-18th Century French Louis XV Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
$5,688 Sale Price34% Off - Aesthetic Movement Japanese Lacquered ChestLocated in Pasadena, CAThis is an exceptional example of an English Victorian Aesthetic Movement chest of drawers surmounted by its original mirror and a pair of small drawers on either side. The pine case has been beautifully detailed in burnt bamboo and encased in antique top quality Japanese lacquer panels...Category
Antique 1890s English Aesthetic Movement Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBamboo, Mirror, Pine, Lacquer
- Six Drawer Teak Chest/Dresser by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for WiddicombBy Widdicomb Furniture Co., T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in San Francisco, CAGreat six drawer double dresser/credenza designed by T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb Furniture in teak. The chest features two banks of three drawers, including dividers in a co...Category
Mid-20th Century English Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsTeak
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Chest of DrawersBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in Brooklyn, NYClassic T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb 6-drawer cabinet in beautiful original finish dark walnut, with brass legs, and raffia cane wrapped handles. Signed with cloth Widdicomb ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsCane, Walnut
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Chest of DrawersBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in New York, NYT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Fuirniture Co. dresser or chest of drawers in dark stained walnut with four circular woven rattan handles and brass end caps ending on tapering b...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
- T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Chest of Drawers in WalnutBy Widdicomb Furniture Co., T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Waalwijk, NLT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Furniture Co., chest of drawers, walnut, cane, brass, United States, 1950s This lovely chest of drawers is designed by British designer T.H. Rob...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
- Mahogany Cabinet by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for WiddicombBy Widdicomb Furniture Co., T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Dorchester, MAT.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings designed this handsome mahogany cabinet for the Widdicomb Furniture Company. The solidly built case has three roomy center drawers with linear wooden pulls and additional shelving behind doors...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
MaterialsMahogany
- Chest of Drawers by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for SaridisBy T.H. Robsjohn-GibbingsLocated in Brussels, BEChest of drawers by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Saridis.Category
Vintage 1960s Greek Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsWood