CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE BY BAKER FURNITURE, INC.
T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings
[Robsjohn-Gibbings] Baker Furniture, Inc.: CONTEMPORARY FURNITURE BY BAKER FURNITURE, INC. Holland, MI: Baker Furniture, n.d. (1950s). A near-fine saddle-stitched softcover catalog in photographically-printed wrappers. Interior unmarked and very clean. Scarce. 8.5 x 11 softcover catalog with 54 pages profusely illustrated in b/w featuring the T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Collection, chairs by Finn Juhl and the Far East and Northwest Collections from Baker Furniture of Holland, Michigan.
The T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings Collection consists of 32 contemporary designs by Robsjohn-Gibbings including sofas, chairs, tables, cabinets, chests, benches, and more. All pieces are identified byname, dimensions and finishes. I suspect this information could be useful to some people out there. There is also illustrated information on four Finn Juhl chair designs that were marketed in the USA by Baker.
Terrence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings (1905-76) is remembered as a British interior and furniture designer. He studied architecture at London University and worked briefly as a naval architect, designing ocean liner interiors, and then as art director for motion pictures. In 1926, he became a salesman for an antiques dealer who specialized in Elizabethan and Jacobean furniture; Robsjohn-Gibbings handled prominent accounts such as Elizabeth Arden and Neiman Marcus.
He disliked the prevailing tastes of the day, describing them as "an indigestible mixture of Queen Anne, Georgian and Spanish styles." He likewise considered Bauhaus-style modernism a fraud; he expressed his views in his writings such as Goodbye, Mr. Chippendale (1944), a spoof of modern interior design, Mona Lisa's Mustache: A dissection of Modern Art (1947), and Homes of the Brave (1953).
He much preferred the visual vocabulary of the classical world, particularly ancient Greek furniture and design; it was there that he turned for inspiration in 1936 when he decided to open a showroom on Madison Avenue in New York. It featured mosaic floor reproductions, sculptural fragments, and sparse furnishings, all combining to achieve his trademark brand of modern historicism. 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. It is still in production. Robsjohn-Gibbings eventually moved to Athens, where he became designer to Aristotle Onassis.
out of stock