The Making of the Rosewood House Book

As a member of the family business, I speak for David, Don, Jane, Joel and Shaun, when I thank the community of loyal patrons who have nurtured the Rosewood House.

Friends of the Rosewood House saw me in the Oakland store, in the early 1980s, as a baby sleeping in a crib. My baby boomer mother, Jane, was around the age I am now. We’re of different generations, but our values are one and the same. Rosewood House is her American Dream.

Through my teenage years, I helped the family business as any son would: lifting heavy furniture, detailing and touching up deliveries, taking inventory in the warehouse, and watching the stores when the parents left on buying trips to Asia.

After graduating college, I spent a couple of years in China, living, traveling, and working as a foreign teacher. I toured our factory, observed the craftsmen at work, visited classical furniture boutiques, and was enlightened by the finest works of art in museums throughout Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. Cumulatively, this was the catalyst that inspired my passion for Asian art.

Rosewood House is not mainstream and we’re not always understood. Rosewood House would perhaps be forgotten – to be remembered solely through our furniture – in a society of hyper, temporary, and instantly disposable. However, a book is tangible, you can hold it in your hands, share it and give it to others. These are everlasting qualities that we can relate to – they complement our furniture.

For decades, we’ve been making custom designs, and I’ve been photographing them because it felt like the right thing to do. What resulted was a large collection of photography that once curated with my writings, justified a self-published book. Like a typical family business, we do it all ourselves. Together, we have fulfilled the American Dream.

- Wilson Tai