The Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Theodore R. Gamble
Selkirk is proud to offer a selection from the private collection of Mr. & Mrs. Theodore R. Gamble. Their extensive collection of Danish furniture, decorative arts, and modern art is the pinnacle of this Fall's Modernism & Contemporary event. This collection is complimented by additional offerings of fine art, mid-century modern furniture, lighting, and decorative objects from Mid-Century Modern through the Contemporary.
Theodore Gamble was Chairman, President and CEO of Pet Incorporated, the international food company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. His wife Rispah Gamble had a life-long interest in art, architecture and design, inspired by her Danish heritage. Together throughout the early 1950s and 60s they assembled an extensive collection of mid-century Danish furniture, including the likes of Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Verner Panton, Jens Risom, Poul Cadovius, Arne Vodder, and Niels Moller, as well as European and American designers such as, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, Florence Knoll, George Nelson, Richard Schultz, and Paul McCobb. Perfectly complementing their unabashedly modern estate designed by architect Alfred L. Aydelott, FAIA, their meticulously curated collection embodies mid-century design. After Theodore Gamble died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm in 1969 at age 44, Rispah Gamble continued to live in her home in Ladue finding solace and enjoyment in caring for her gardens and in her enduring passion for design until her death in April 2024 at age 98.
Alfred L. Aydelott, FAIA (1916-2008) was an accomplished modernist architect, instructor of architecture at Yale in the 1950s with Louis Kahn and designer of numerous well-known buildings throughout the world including the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines, the largest hospital in South America in Lima, Peru.
In the early 1960s, Theodore and Rispah Gamble selected Aydelott to design their new home in the St. Louis suburb of Ladue. To better integrate the home’s design with Ladue’s decidedly traditional architecture, Aydelott found his inspiration for its exterior in the simple eighteenth century colonial architecture of the French settlements along the Mississippi Valley such as Sainte-Geneviève, Missouri. However, the interior volume with an open plan, soaring cedar ceiling, and custom woodwork throughout was unabashedly modern and a perfect setting for the Gambles’ collection. In 1969, Aydelott also completed construction of the highly regarded, Pet Plaza, the brutalist headquarters for Pet Inc. on the St. Louis riverfront adjacent to Eero Saarinen’s Gateway Arch.
Just like the clean lines of ranch style homes and the bold striking angles of high-rises, mid-century modern furniture and décor adopted an understated minimalist look, keen on organic geometric design. “Form follows function” is a phrase coined by architect Louis Sullivan, and thus became the mantra of mid-century architects and designers.
