Design: From a Grecian Urn

For almost a quarter of a century, Designer T. H. (for Terence Harold) Robsjohn-Gibbings successfully designed stark, austere contemporary furniture for a number of top U.S. manufacturers. A decorator, architect, author (GoodBye, Mr. Chippendale), and longtime admirer of the durability of classic Greek forms, Gibbings grew increasingly disenchanted with the coldness and built-in "artificial obsolescence" of most modern furniture. Poking through museums and private art collections all over the U.S. and Europe, he cribbed ideas from the drawings on ancient Greek pottery and bas-reliefs. This week in Athens, a new line...