About Robsjohn-Gibbings

T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-1976) was a British born architect and furniture designer, who studied architecture at London University. He afterwards worked briefly as a naval architect, designing ocean liner interiors, and then as art director for a motion picture studio. In 1926, he became a salesman for an antiques dealer who specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean furniture. In the late 1930s and 40s, he was the most important decorator in America. He opened a shop on Madison Ave in 1936 and proceeded to design houses for people like Doris Duke, Alfred A. Knopf and Thelma Chrysler Foy. From 1943-56, he worked as a designer for the Widdicomb furniture company in Grand Rapids. Then in 1960, he net Greek cabinetmakers Susan and Eleftherios Saridis. Together they created the Klismos line of furniture, which is still in production. Robsjohn-Gibbings eventually moved to Athens, where he became designer to Aristotle Onassis.