When Charles and Ray Eames designed their now-famous molded plywood chair and molded plywood folding screen in 1946, manufacturer Herman Miller offered the furniture in ash and in rosewood.

The rosewood production stopped seven years ago.

An eco-conscious company, Herman Miller ceased using the tropical rosewood because it “cannot be harvested, at least with today’s technology, in a sustainable manner,” explains Mark Schurman, a spokesman for the furniture-maker.

But there was an existing supply of rosewood sitting in a Herman Miller warehouse, assigned for repair work only, and it was reaching its shelf life.

Rather than scrapping the tropical wood, Herman Miller is putting it to good use: in a limited-edition production of those two Eames designs. Only 500 chairs and 500 screens are being made in the rosewood.
According to Schurman, the rosewood ranges in color from “quite light, almost like cherry, to very dark.” All of the wood, though, has the bold graining that is typical to the species.