Reverence for nature’s
extraordinary gifts
THE STORY OF OUR MATERIALS
Beautiful materials are the genesis of every Pollaro masterpiece. For more than 30 years, we have collected rare and unique materials from across the world. This vast library allows our clients to choose from an array of exceptional woods, rather than be limited to what is available from third-party sources in the moment. Choosing an exceptional piece of wood, metal or stone is an art in itself, and we guide all our patrons with an expert eye as they select the perfect ingredients for their project—a once in a lifetime experience.
Beautiful materials are the genesis of every Pollaro masterpiece. For more than 30 years, we have collected rare and unique materials from across the world.
This vast library allows our clients to choose from an array of exceptional woods, rather than be limited to what is available from third-party sources in the moment. Choosing an exceptional piece of wood, metal or stone is an art in itself, and we guide all our patrons with an expert eye as they select the perfect ingredients for their project—a once in a lifetime experience.
“Working with Frank is like a classic road trip. He’ll encourage interesting diversions and distractions, and he’ll tolerate the most convoluted itinerary requirements from a capricious designer. But Frank knows the road and, somewhere in his back pocket he has a 4 dimensional map. His landscape is wood, stone, metal, and his knowledge of its topography, geology and history is encyclopaedic. Frank is the Magellan of furniture making, masquerading as Jack Kerouac…”
Simon Rowell
Creative Director, Bannenberg & Rowell
THE POLLARO WOOD COLLECTION
Our Wood Collection is the largest inventory of rare and storied logs ever assembled, each sourced with the experience and eye of a master craftsman. Our respect for nature’s gifts is absolute, and we go to great lengths to ensure all our woods are sourced responsibly through sources where we have developed unique, privileged relationships.
Our Lignum Theatrum is a space that celebrates the most spectacular materials in a dramatic and serene environment. With each slab or piece immaculately lit, we create the perfect, temple-like setting for our patrons to inspect and select materials for their project.
Our Wood Collection is the largest inventory of rare and storied logs ever assembled, each sourced with the experience and eye of a master craftsman.
Our respect for nature’s gifts is absolute, and we go to great lengths to ensure all our woods are sourced responsibly through sources where we have developed unique, privileged relationships.
Our Lignum Theatrum is a space that celebrates the most spectacular materials in a dramatic and serene environment. With each slab or piece immaculately lit, we create the perfect, temple-like setting for our patrons to inspect and select materials for their project.
600
We have more than 600 unique logs in our collection.
138
We have more than 1,000,000 feet of veneer representing 138 species, including spectacular burls and crotches.
400+
We have amassed the largest collection of Macassar Ebony in the world, including more than 220 veneer logs and 200 sequence cut solid lumber cants.
600
We have more than 600 unique logs in our collection.
138
We have more than 1,000,000 feet of veneer representing 138 species, including spectacular burls and crotches.
400+
We have amassed the largest collection of Macassar Ebony in the world, including more than 220 veneer logs and 200 sequence cut solid lumber cants.
POLLARO SPECIAL VENEER
Our catalogue of veneer is the largest private collection in the world, including more than 1,000,000 square feet of veneer from 138 species. It is comprised of only the top fraction of a percent of woods evaluated by our team—for every log we acquire, we reject 400 others. All of our veneers are available for personal inspection at our workshop, meticulously arranged by color and grain characteristics, making them the ultimate box of crayons for a design professional.
Our catalogue of veneer is the largest private collection in the world, including more than 1,000,000 square feet of veneer from 138 species.
It is comprised of only the top fraction of a percent of woods evaluated by our team—for every log we acquire, we reject 400 others. All of our veneers are available for personal inspection at our workshop, meticulously arranged by color and grain characteristics, making them the ultimate box of crayons for a design professional.
ARTISTIC VENEER
Some woods are true miracles of nature—absolute one-in-a-million specimens. Created by unique circumstances occurring in the natural world, every piece of artistic veneer we collect represents a rare and unrepeatable discovery. These veneers can only be described as nature’s breathtaking works of art.
Some woods are true miracles of nature—absolute one-in-a-million specimens.
Created by unique circumstances occurring in the natural world, every piece of artistic veneer we collect represents a rare and unrepeatable discovery. These veneers can only be described as nature’s breathtaking works of art.
ARTISTIC VENEER — ROYAL EBONY
BURL WOODS — AMBOYNA
BURL WOODS — BUBINGA
BURL WOODS — CAMPHOR
FIGURED WOODS — FRENCH WALNUT SWIRL
CROTCH WOODS — CEYLON SATINWOOD
ONCE IN A LIFETIME WOODS
BUBINGA PUDDLE & CIRCASSSIAN WALNUT OYSTER
SOLID WOODS
We have a different approach to collecting lumber than any other maker. Many of our logs are custom boule cut, as opposed to random cut. This allows a chair to be made from a single board and a set of chairs to be made from a single tree. This approach guarantees perfect color harmony in a piece, or suite of pieces.
We have a different approach to collecting lumber than any other maker.
Many of our logs are custom boule cut, as opposed to random cut. This allows a chair to be made from a single board and a set of chairs to be made from a single tree. This approach guarantees perfect color harmony in a piece, or suite of pieces.
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
SATINWOOD CROTCH
“Building a collection of the world’s most exceptional woods has been a treasure hunt spanning more than three decades. Sometimes the thrill of discovery leaves me breathless.”
“In 1996 I paid a visit to one of the oldest veneer cutters in France, which supplied veneer to Ruhlmann’s workshop in the 1920s. In broken French, I asked whether they had any Ceylon satinwood crotch veneer as I had never seen it anywhere else in the world. A man in his 80s shook his finger in the air and walked me down a steep flight of stairs into a dark basement, where he positioned a ladder.
Reaching into the rafters, he pulled out a small black bundle. He then proceeded to clean off a thick layer of soot to reveal the intense canary yellow color of satinwood. As he continued to vacuum the dust, I could see more of the tiny feathered plume of this incredibly rare veneer. There was newspaper glued to the edges to guard against breaking the brittle leaves which, on closer inspection, I realized was dated 1928. This incredible wood hadn’t been touched in almost a century.
This parcel of bundles are the only examples of this veneer I’ve ever found. They sleep in the same box they were originally shipped in.”
Frank Pollaro
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
SATINWOOD CROTCH
“Building a collection of the world’s most exceptional woods has been a treasure hunt spanning more than three decades. Sometimes the thrill of discovery leaves me breathless.”
“In 1996 I paid a visit to one of the oldest veneer cutters in France, which supplied veneer to Ruhlmann’s workshop in the 1920s. In broken French, I asked whether they had any Ceylon satinwood crotch veneer as I had never seen it anywhere else in the world. A man in his 80s shook his finger in the air and walked me down a steep flight of stairs into a dark basement, where he positioned a ladder.
Reaching into the rafters, he pulled out a small black bundle. He then proceeded to clean off a thick layer of soot to reveal the intense canary yellow color of satinwood. As he continued to vacuum the dust, I could see more of the tiny feathered plume of this incredibly rare veneer. There was newspaper glued to the edges to guard against breaking the brittle leaves which, on closer inspection, I realized was dated 1928. This incredible wood hadn’t been touched in almost a century.
This parcel of bundles are the only examples of this veneer I’ve ever found. They sleep in the same box they were originally shipped in.”
Frank Pollaro
“Wood is a natural material and you can never be entirely consistent,
but the patterns Pollaro achieves are unbelievable.”
Sander Sinot
Sinot Yacht Design
NATURAL SLABS
Our collection of solid wood slabs offers an incredible array of large, beautifully figured and radiant materials. These slabs collectively represent over 150,000 years of growth, with some individual slabs being more than 600 years old.
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
BASTOGNE WALNUT
“On rare occasion, nature delivers gifts of truly unrepeatable rarity. But finding them takes time, patience and plenty of serendipity.”
“On rare occasion, nature delivers gifts of truly unrepeatable rarity. But finding them takes time, patience and plenty of serendipity.”
“Sometime around 1850, in the forests of the Sacramento river basin in California, a bee landed on the flower of an English walnut. That same bee would go on to pollinate the flower of a nearby Claro walnut and over the next 140 years, a tree grew—a cross-pollinized hybrid walnut. In 1990, the tree, which then stood on a farm, died naturally and lay in a woodcutters barn for the next 30 years.
When I stumbled upon it in 2010, I immediately knew I had found something extraordinary—the finest expression of the species. The wood possessed a kaleidoscopic array of colors and the crotch wood grain was both fine and incredibly highly figured. Wood like this is rarely found and I acquired the whole tree as eight trunk-section slabs.
They remain in our wood collection, waiting in reserve for the most special project.”
Frank Pollaro
“Sometime around 1850, in the forests of the Sacramento river basin in California, a bee landed on the flower of an English walnut. That same bee would go on to pollinate the flower of a nearby Claro walnut and over the next 140 years, a tree grew—a cross-pollinized hybrid walnut. In 1990, the tree, which then stood on a farm, died naturally and lay in a woodcutters barn for the next 20 years.
When I stumbled upon it in 2010, I immediately knew I had found something extraordinary—the finest expression of the species. The wood possessed a kaleidoscopic array of colors and the crotch wood grain was both fine and incredibly highly figured. Wood like this is rarely found and I acquired the whole tree as eight trunk-section slabs.
They remain in our wood collection, waiting in reserve for the most special project.”
Frank Pollaro
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
WASHINGTON WHITE OAK
“In May 1780, General George Washington hosted a lunch for the Marquis de Lafayette under an ancient white oak tree in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.”
“This ‘witness tree’ to history was approximately 600 years old when it died of natural causes in 2016. The normal life span of an American white oak almost never exceeds 300 years. This was the oldest white oak tree in America—its annular rings dating all the way back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. At its base, it measured almost 27 feet in circumference and had a canopy spanning more than 150 feet.
We acquired the lower trunk section of the tree which yielded a very small number of legacy table tops. One exceptional discovery during milling was a Revolutionary War–era musket bullet lodged into the wood. Counting the rings, one can work out the exact year that this bullet was fired into the tree.
The bullet is a remarkable treasure that will remain embedded in the slab, and fully visible as part of the table top.”
Frank Pollaro
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
WASHINGTON WHITE OAK
“In May 1780, General George Washington hosted a lunch for the Marquis de Lafayette under an ancient white oak tree in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.”
“This ‘witness tree’ to history was approximately 600 years old when it died of natural causes in 2016. The normal life span of an American white oak almost never exceeds 300 years. This was the oldest white oak tree in America—its annular rings dating all the way back to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. At its base, it measured almost 27 feet in circumference and had a canopy spanning more than 150 feet.
We acquired the lower trunk section of the tree which yielded a very small number of legacy table tops. One exceptional discovery during milling was a Revolutionary War–era musket bullet lodged into the wood. Counting the rings, one can work out the exact year that this bullet was fired into the tree.
The bullet is a remarkable treasure that will remain embedded in the slab, and fully visible as part of the table top.”
Frank Pollaro
- METALS
- SPECIAL MATERIALS
- SUSTAINABILITY
“Your materials are spectacular, and your workmanship superb. I would be happy to recommend you to anyone who cares about having the finest.”
Sandy Weill
ARTISTIC EGGSHELL LACQUER
In 1925 master lacquerist Jean Dudand kept a coop of chickens behind his workshop in Paris to supply eggshells that he used to a create brilliant white tones in his artwork. In similar fashion we also keep a chicken coop behind our workshop, which allows us to feed our family of hens a fully organic diet and for them to each lay six eggs every week. The eggs become breakfast for our team, and the shells become art. The coop is kept safe by Bob Marley, our rooster.
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
MACASSAR EBONY
“We once had a chance encounter with an “Indiana Jones” type who described a small discovery of rare Macassar ebony that was found by local lumbermen on Sulawesi, a remote island that lies between Borneo and New Guinea.”
“The ebony is harvested from small areas of the jungle, so pristine and untraveled, that no roads exist and each small tree must be moved by hand. Once the inner dark colored wood has been separated from the outer white sapwood, it is dragged downhill to the nearest trail, and is then further moved by local domesticated buffalo to the nearest village. Next it is shipped to the USA by boat and slowly dried under controlled conditions for 10 years.”
Frank Pollaro
A NEVER-ENDING STORY
MACASSAR EBONY
“We once had a chance encounter with an “Indiana Jones” type who described a small discovery of rare Macassar ebony that was found by local lumbermen on Sulawesi, a remote island that lies between Borneo and New Guinea.”
“The ebony is harvested from small areas of the jungle, so pristine and untraveled, that no roads exist and each small tree must be moved by hand. Once the inner dark colored wood has been separated from the outer white sapwood, it is dragged downhill to the nearest trail, and is then further moved by local domesticated buffalo to the nearest village. Next it is shipped to the USA by boat and slowly dried under controlled conditions for 10 years.”
Frank Pollaro
MACASSAR EBONY
“The inventory consisted of 128 logs. The outward appearance of these logs was deceiving, since their exterior surface had oxidized to an unremarkable dark brown during their time in storage. However, once sliced into lumber, the perfect grain and incredibly dramatic color was revealed.”
“I personally supervised the milling program, spending a week in Oregon’s high desert. After milling, each ebony board was washed and restacked in the exact sequence it existed in the tree. This allows us to book-match boards for every piece of ebony furniture we build.
We have a detailed photographic record of the entire process, providing thrilling insight into the exotic origin of this absolutely unique wood.”
Frank Pollaro
Made without equal
HANDMADE IN THE USA SINCE 1988