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HOW
TO SPEND IT: East Bay passions
The sit-ins are long since over, says Holly Finn, but Berkeley
has plenty to shout about
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Transforming
not transporting: an antique Kermanshah carpet from
the Claremont Rug Company (above)
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An
excerpt from the London Financial Times, September 23, 2000
The San Francisco bay area is temptation central. To the north
lie the seductive twin sirens, Sonoma, and Napa, bathed in
the scent of crushed grapes. To the south stands the peninsula,
Silicon Valley's irresistible khaki-clad army bidding you
share its fortune. To the west stretches the Pacific beckoning
blue, vast with possibility. And to the east? Well, there's
Berkeley.... Doesn't strike you as an obvious place to spend
your capitalist money? For good or bad, Berkeley is not the
hotbed of dissent it once was. Thanks to Alice Waters' Chez
Panisse, it's now better known as the home of California cuisine.
But there's more to it than arugula. People here, beyond chefs,
are still unusually passionate about what they do.
The
Claremont Rug Company - one of the world's best sources of
antique carpets - is here, co-owned (with wife Christine
and partner) by Jan David Winitz, who inherited two things
from his grandmother: a collection of great rugs and a love
of art. Since 1980, he has been combining the two, offering
beautifully unusual floor coverings to those with friends
kind enough to share the secret of his showroom. There are
many places you can pick up a Persian, but, as Winitz points
out, though the majority of 20th century rugs were handwoven,
they were also copied, again and again - often obviously,
shoddily - for westerners. Winitz specialises in something
more rare: 19th century handmade carpets which were individually
commissioned, usually for family estates.
It
took master weavers between two and seven years to complete
one of these - and it shows, in the subtlety of the colors
(not farm-fed salmon orange, for instance, but sunburnt terracotta)
and the intricacy of the designs, each one like a storyteller's
woven portrait of home. They are less room furnishings than,
as Winitz says, "art for the floor".
Estates
all over the world are where Winitz finds this art. Recently,
an 88-year-old Swiss woman left more than 250 rugs, amassed
over 50 years, lying on her floors in Geneva, Provence and
the Hudson Valley. Winitz acquired them, and they are now
part of the broad collection he offers to clients. Prices
start from $20,000, and every purchase comes with a Lifetime
Full Exchange Policy (if your house, or taste, changes just
trade the rug in).
Though
it is best to walk into the showroom, and around these rugs,
the company prides itself on being able to "act like
a local store anywhere" - using it's internet site, digital
pictures, even at home sampling, to show you what the options
are. Clients in Kansas City relied entirely on photographs
and digital files when buying rugs for their home - "18
extremely rare pieces from us, " says Winitz, "without
ever having to leave their home".
For
some clients, such as those looking to furnish their estate
on the island they own off the east coast, the company will
even fly out samples. However you choose between it's wares,
the company will remind you what it's like to tread softly
on a dream.
Another
sort of east bay reverie comes courtesy of Michael Sosin,
a former dentist and the founder of Pinzette Glass Works.
He, too, is a Berkeley local, producing and selling the stuff
he once only dreamed of making....
He
started Pinzette, and began to produce his handblown Studio
line of creamers and vases in luminous colored glass with
opaque contrasting trim ($40-$90), as well as one-of-a-kind
Chinese style vases ($350-$1,400). These are now available
from select galleries as well as museum shops, including those
at the Guggenheim and the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art....
After
wandering around Claremont's rugs, and through Pinzette's
studio, you'll be tempted to shuffle back to San Francisco
before rush hour renders your accelerator ironic. Resist and
head up to the hills instead, to The Claremont Resort and
Spa.
This
sprawling historic hotel, set on 22 acres, is just 20 minutes
from downtown San Francisco - on a perfect traffic day.
The
Claremont opened (in 1915) at a time when the great American
luxury was not getting away from it all to some remote Indian
Ocean island, but getting together - whether in the east bay
or the Catskills or Palm Beach - in a palace of a place, with
your sort of people. Frank Lloyd Wright called the Claremont
"one of the few hotels in the world with warmth, character
and charm", and designed a wedding chapel for it in 1957....
KSL
Recreation Corporation bought the resort two years ago, and
has plans for expansion and renovation - including a new 15,000
sq ft spa to replace the former, strangely subterranean, space.
Due to open later this year, the new spa will replace the
dusty-pink walls and "vanity" counters of old with
three floor-to-ceiling waterwalls, an Aroma Spritz Bar, and
an expanded array of treatments (including the local speciality,
grapeseed body polish, $85), and indulgent takeaways (pick
up a bottle of CreedÕs Millesime, $130 for 75ml)....
With
it's massive wings and proud tower, topped by a billowing
Stars and Stripes, the hotel is still a passionate sort of
place.
And,
like Claremont Rugs and Pinzette, it's on "the
sunny side of the bay", beyond the fog, and beyond fakery.
- Claremont
Rug Company
6087 Claremont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94618
(tel: +1 510-654 0816, fax: +1 510-654 8661) and
1813 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
(+1 510-883 1300, fax: +1 510-883 9343).
www.claremontrug.com
- Pinzette
Glass Works
2547 Eighth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
(tel: +1 510-649 8952, fax: +1 510-654 6320
- Claremont
Resort and Spa
41 Tunnel Road, Berkeley, CA 94705
(+1 510-843 3000, fax: +1 510-848 6208)
www.claremontresort.com
Also see:
FINANCIAL TIMES - "Treasures You Purchase to Hold on to" (3/29/08)
Download printable version 
MARKET WATCH / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - "Global Leap in Best Antique Rugs as Major Works of Art " (7/14/08)
Download printable version
MARKET WATCH / THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - "Domestic and International Connoisseurs Embrace Antique Rug Sales Event in “Next Frontier of Art Investing” " (6/2/08)
Download printable version
THE MERCURY NEWS - "Rare rugs" (5/30/08)
Download printable version
YAHOO FINANCE - "Claremont Rug Company Announces Additional Hudson River Valley Collection " (4/30/08)
Download printable version
REUTERS.COM - "Claremont Rug Company Holds Globally Significant Exhibition… Rare, 19th Century Caucasus Rugs" (12/17/07)
Download printable version
FORBES.COM - "Claremont Rug Company Acquires “Mother Lode” Collection of 19th Century Art Carpets" (2/12/08)
Download printable version
FORBES.COM - "Increasingly Savvy Clients and Decreasing Availability Combine with Internet To Create Perfect Storm in Rare Rug Market" (10/24/07)
Download printable version
MORNINGSTAR.COM - "Demand for Antique Carpets and Rugs Expands While Availability is Reduced" (9/16/07)
Download printable version
FORBES.COM - "Leading Antique Carpet Dealer Cites Boom in Internet Sales" (9/5/07)
Download printable version
WORTH MAGAZINE - "Masterpieces Underfoot "
Download printable version
CALIFORNIA CEO - "Putting
Out the Red Carpet: The Claremont Rug Company has woven a close
relationship with its customers thanks to a wise use of the Web."
Download printable version
CIO Magazine
- "Carpetbaggers: The Claremont Rug Co., purveyor of antique carpets
made centuries ago by Southwest Asian nomads, has benefited doubly from
the great leap forward to the Internet."
FINANCIAL TIMES - "How
To Spend It: East bay passions. The sit-ins are long since over, says
Holly Finn, but Berkeley has plenty to shout about...The Claremont Rug
Company - one of the world's best sources of antique carpets - is here."
Download printable version
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - "Art At Your Feet: Antique or copied oriental rugs express their weavers' inspirations"
Download printable version
OAKLAND TRIBUNE - "Web Helps Rug Store Clinch Sales"
BEL AIR ARTICLE - "What Hotel Bel Air (Beverly Hills, CA) says about Claremont Rug"
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