T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings s’ “Mesa” Coffee Table is not only one of the designer's most recognizable and celebrated pieces, but it is also an icon of American mid-century design. Introduced in 1951 by Michigan-based Widdicomb Furniture Company, the table was visually commanding through its organic, freeform shape and size, measuring over nine feet in length. Robsjohn-Gibbings s worked with the manufacturer from 1946 until 1957, creating suites of furniture around various themes. Sculptural and abstract, the "Mesa" table was designed to be a centerpiece that could integrate with other furniture lines. Robsjohn-Gibbings s was inspired by aerial views he saw from airplane travel across the United States, and created the “Mesa” table as an interpretation of the mountains of the southwest. The table comprises three layers of flat-topped forms with undulating sides reminiscent of plateau rock formations. In another ode to nature, Robsjohn-Gibbings s created natural-toned finishes named sienna, sorrel, bisque, saffron and cordovan.

Born in England in 1905, Robsjohn-Gibbings s received a bachelor’s degree in architecture in London and studied decorative arts in Paris. He worked as a draftsman designing passenger ship interiors, and in 1929, met the antique furniture dealer Charles Duveen. Robsjohn-Gibbings s relocated to New York City where he imported Elizabethan furniture and antiques for Duveen, a period certainly influential to the designer’s practice. In 1936, Robsjohn-Gibbings s opened his own design shop on Madison Avenue which launched his career. At the gallery, he displayed furniture and objects influenced by Ancient Grecian classical design infused with a modern sensibility. Robsjohn-Gibbings s earned a select clientele and, through custom orders, created for them predominately classically-inspired interiors and furniture.

Dedicated to creating a purely American modern style of furniture, Robsjohn-Gibbings s sought to avoid creating what he called the “skin-and-bones machine for living,” a reference to the international modern style popularized by other designers at the t.mes . The “Mesa” coffee table was a quintessential antidote to the often stark modernism. The use of rich woods and the flowing, organic lines of the table conjure association with the studio craft movement, and situate it amongst the work of other Americans operating in the organic modern mode, such as influential designers Ray and Charles Eames and Russel Wright. Over the course of the table’s production, it was offered in three different sizes. The present “Mesa” coffee table was produced by Widdicomb starting in 1952 and is smaller than the 1951 version, measuring approximately six feet in length. The table’s free-form shape reflects the more relaxed social norms developed during the mid-twentieth century. The coffee table was featured on the cover of House Beautiful in May of 1952. The beautifully sculptural and biomorphic “Mesa” coffee table remains to this day a legendary design and a masterpiece of postwar American furniture.