Robbsjohn-Gibbings 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; 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. Page 2 >