T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings

In the late 1930s and 1940s T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings was the most important decorator in America. While he originally studied architecture at London University, and afterwards worked briefly as a naval architect, designing ocean liner interiors, and then as art director for a motion picture studio, he came into his own in 1926, when he became a salesman for the antiques dealer Charles of London who specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean furniture.

After opening a shop on New York's Madison Avenue in 1936, Robsjohn-Gibbings proceeded to design houses from coast to coast for such scions as tobacco heiress Doris Duke, Alfred A. Knopf, and Thelma Chrysler Foy.

The design work of T. H. Robsjohn Gibbings is hallmarked as a modern mixture of the classical elements of Ancient Grecian design, and Art Deco design. It features mosaic floor reproductions, sculptural fragments, and sparse furnishings, all combining to achieve his trademark brand of modern historicism.

T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings preferred the visual vocabulary of the classical world, particularly ancient Greek furniture and design. Robsjohn-Gibbings' look was widely emulated, and, from 1943–56, he worked as a designer for the Widdicomb Furniture Company in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 1960, he met Greek cabinetmakers Susan and Eleftherios Saridis, and, together, they created the Klismos line of furniture, which drew heavily on classical forms. Robsjohn-Gibbings eventually moved to Athens, where he became designer to Aristotle Onassis.