Press Release

Claremont Rug Company Exhibits “Best of the Best Antique Carpets” of 2012

Museum-Level Pieces Date to Circa 1800; Stellar Examples From Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving

Oakland, CA - January 28, 2013—Jan David Winitz, an eminent art dealer who specializes in antique Oriental rugs, today announced that his gallery, Claremont Rug Company, is mounting its second annual exhibition of the “best of the best” carpets sold during the previous year.  A total of 30 rugs will be displayed, starting immediately. The exhibition can be accessed via http://www.claremontrug.com/best-antique-oriental-rugs-2012/

“I expect art collectors to be enamored with the highly original pattern language and incredible color palettes found in these pieces which represent the epitome of rug weaving in Persia and the Caucasus during the 19th century,” said Winitz, author of “The Guide to Purchasing an Oriental Rug.”

He said that all of the rugs in Claremont’s web exhibition “would undoubtedly have appeared in the rug literature” had they not been in private collections for up to four generations.” Two of the rugs of particular note are:

• Kermanshah Tree antique rug (4-4 x 7 ca 1800) that Winitz called, “Among the very best of its type we have ever had the privilege to offer…in unfathomably good condition at over two centuries of age.” 
• Bakshaish Garden of Paradise antique carpet (9-6 x 12-6 ca 1850), which Winitz said “exhibits among the most potent blue and rose hues I have seen in an oriental rug.”

“We decided to make this an annual event because of the extraordinarily positive response we received from the international rug community to our first best of the best exhibition last year,” Winitz, who founded Claremont in 1980, said.  “This new group is even more astonishing, as last year we had unparalleled access to rugs of great rarity. Because both newcomers to antique rugs and aficionados ‘visit’ us via our website, we have found online exhibitions to be of central importance to our niche in the art market.”

Claremont Rug Company’s inventory is comprised of rugs from the “Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving,” circa 1800 to circa 1910.  Antique Oriental rugs from this era are prized by rug connoisseurs and art collectors as this was the final period before the artistry and quality of the Oriental rug weaving was compromised by commercialism.