Although the 1930s saw an increasing acceptance of the aesthetics of Modernism, traditional design continued to be dominant. Most people found its references to a settled past reassuring. The styles of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, more or less accurately copied, were especially popular. However, even Neoclassicism, which might be assumed to be the safest of styles, could be challenging if carried to extremes.

Here Robsjohn-Gibbings took the form of a classic klismos chair, depictions of which are found in ancient Greek paintings and sculpture, and produced a design of great elegance. Conventionalized adaptations of klismos chairs had been used in many early- nineteenth-century interiors, but this form, stripped to its essentials, goes well beyond them. It is striking in its absolute purity.