Incollect Magazine - Issue 11

64 www.incollect.com lifelong fan of Robsjohn-Gibbings, is just one of many dealers and designers who have a near religious reverence for the designer. Among designs Baer admires are, he says, a Walnut Cocktail / Coffee Table with Magazine Box on top as well as Walnut Single Drawer Nightstands and a matching Walnut Six Drawer Chest of Drawers, all of which he describes as “simple, graceful and functional.” Baer recently acquired a collection of 50 pieces of furniture by the designer, including examples of his iconic Klismos chairs, a take on traditional Greek klismos seats depicted on Greek classical vases. “These chairs are a stunning contemporary reinterpretation of an ancient Greek design, characterized by beautifully detailed, splayed legs,” he says. “What I admire most is their original leather cording and tags that showcase their exceptional craftsmanship and serve as a testament to quality.” Robsjohn-Gibbing studied ancient Greek ceramics and vases in museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and sketched the furniture that was shown on them as an inspiration for his own furniture designs. “He also took notice of the fabric in designs that were on the ancient pieces of furniture he saw and he referenced these as well in his work,” says Maddie Sadofski from TFTM design gallery in Los Angeles, who has dealt in his material for more than two decades and another dedicated fan. “He had this extraordinary ability to blend together the needs of modern life with these classical influences, and in the process made truly timeless forms that resonate today.” One of Robsjohn-Gibbings celebrated quotes is that “a room should be a background for living,” and to this end his designs strive for an understated luxury, but with a strong attention to functionality, human proportion and scale. “His furniture designs were antiques-driven for sure, but he was really interested in how people were living at the time and how furniture could be updated to reflect new ways of living,” says Paul Donzella, who opened his first showroom in the East Village in New York in 1995 with an exhibition devoted to Dayrest Chaise with walnut frame and brass legs, Model 1729 produced by Widdicomb, United States, circa 1953. Photo courtesy of Donzella. Above: Watercolor sketch of a classical Greek stool by Robsjohn-Gibbings. Right: Furniture for the exhibition “Furniture of Classical Greece,” as photographed in the courtyard of the House of the Dolphins, ca. 110 BCE, on the island of Delos, photograph by Loomis Dean, courtesy TFTM.