T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings

Mrs. J. O. Weber, Casa Encantada, Bel Air, California, commissioned directly from the artist, 1937

Conrad Hilton, Casa Encantada, Bel Air, California, acquired from the above

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, December 18, 1980, lot 19

Private Collection

Sotheby's, New York, June 11, 1997, lot 268

Eric Phillippe, Paris

Sydell Miller, Palm Beach, acquired from the above through Peter Marino, 2001

"Residence of Mrs. Hilda Boldt Weber, Bel-Air, Los Angeles, California," Architectural Digest, vol. 10, no. 3, January, 1941, n.p. (for the present lot illustrated)

Anne Bony, Furniture & Interiors of the 1940s, Paris, 2003, p. 101 (for the present lot illustrated)

Sam Watters, Houses of Los Angeles: 1920-1935, vol. II, New York, 2007, p. 346 (for the present lot illustrated)

Peter J. Holliday, American Arcadia, California and the Classical Tradition, New York, 2016, pp. 249-54 (for a discussion of the Casa Encantada commission)

The present Pair of Torchères for the Casa Encantada, Bel Air, California by T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings offers a refined expression of Californian modernism shaped by the designer’s command of proportion and atmosphere. Conceived for one of Bel Air’s most celebrated residences, the torchères were essential to a setting conceived for luminous, composed entertaining as well as effortless daily life.

Robsjohn-Gibbings approached the torchère as both functional light and architectural punctuation. The pair’s vertical emphasis establishes a graceful rhythm through the room, framing key sightlines while their sculptural silhouettes ensure they are read as objects in their own right, not merely fittings. Characteristic of his work, the forms balance crisp modern structure with a quietly tactile sensibility, confident in outline, refined in presence, and harmonious from every angle.