Background To The Collection

Background To
The Collection

The Gold Coasts Collection is the product of two generations of a rug-loving family, the patriarch and his wife, then their twin daughters and their spouses. Together, they amassed a monumental cache of High-Collectible and Connoisseur-Caliber 19th century carpets that covered the floors and walls of their five homes. Other pieces were rotated in from storage.

The surviving twin, now in her 70’s, said that over half of their combined collections graced their father’s homes in Greenwich, CT, then later a family compound in West Palm Beach, FL, the two areas on the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard known as “The Gold Coast.”  The display included the original rugs he bought in Europe starting in the late 1940s, highlighted by Hadji Jallili Tabrizs, Caucasian rugs, Ferahan Sarouks, Mohtasham Kashans, and Bakshaishs. She recalled their father joking that he discovered rugs as a young man “before they became rare,” so he could afford much of what he desired. He served two post-WW2 commissions for the military and as an aide for the Marshall Plan consoler’s office in France. He also married his French sweetheart during his stay there.

His rug quest became a lifetime passion both for him and his wife, with antique Persian and tribal carpets being his intellectual and emotional respite from the stress as an officer in a large Corporate Services firm. Happily, his wife was as enthused as he.

 

The twin girls enjoyed “tagging along with dad” to the exotic shops of his dealers, especially while touring Europe on their annual trips to France to visit their mother’s family. These escapades were their “tutoring by osmosis,” and when they grew up, married, and opened homes of their own, their husbands quickly learned that their wives inherited their parents’ passion. The family collection grew as these ladies pursued Tehrans, Qashqais, Sennehs, and Serapis in addition to their “father’s genres” for their homes in the Hamptons, Aspen, and Paris.

 

“Rugs were everywhere in all of our homes,” the seller confessed when she and several of the family’s 3rd generation contacted us. “For my brothers, fine antique rugs are something to live with. For my sister and I, they were something to be totally absorbed in.”

We are elated that the extended family approached us interested in selling over 100 pieces from their treasury. Both generations primarily dealt with European dealers, who had far more developed access to top-tier rugs than American dealers at that time. The family members only discovered Claremont later in their lives and made many of their last acquisitions through us.

This web gallery features 50 rugs at a time. As they sell, they will be replaced by other  carpets from the Collection.

This staggered presentation of the collection is to make it possible for the sellers to achieve the great logistical feat of gathering and shipping the rugs from homes and in storage from different parts of the world. Then for us the job of cataloguing, photographing, writing about and reviewing the restoration needs each piece by our specialists, while running an active retail business, is a gargantuan undertaking. Interestingly, it also is more fun – giving our clients and ourselves the time to appreciate each and every sterling piece.

This collection represents an unprecedented opportunity to view and purchase exemplary rugs simply no longer available in today’s market. This event is by invitation only.*

Back to The Gold Coasts Collection Gallery — Click Here

*Since this is a special invitational event for our established clients only,
we ask that you do not pay via trade-ins.

The Gold Coasts Collection is the product of two generations of a rug-loving family, the patriarch and his wife, then their twin daughters and their spouses. Together, they amassed a monumental cache of High-Collectible and Connoisseur-Caliber 19th century carpets that covered the floors and walls of their five homes. Other pieces were rotated in from storage.

The surviving twin, now in her 70’s, told us that over half of their combined collections graced their father’s homes in Greenwich, CT, then later a family compound in West Palm Beach, FL, the two areas each known as “The Gold Coast” on the U.S. Atlantic Seaboard. The display included the original carpets he purchased in Europe starting in the late 1940s, highlighted by Hadji Jallili Tabriz carpets, Caucasian rugs, Ferahan Sarouks, Mohtasham Kashans, and Bakshaish. She recalled their father joking that he discovered rugs as a young man “before they became rare,” so he could afford much of what he desired. He served two post-WW2 commissions for the military and as an aide for the Marshall Plan consoler’s office in France. He also married his French sweetheart during his stay there.

His rug quest became a lifetime passion both for him and his wife, with antique Persian and tribal carpets being his intellectual and emotional respite from the stress as an officer in a large Corporate Services firm. Happily, his wife was as enthused as he.

 

The twin girls enjoyed “tagging along with dad” to the exotic shops of his dealers, especially while touring Europe on their annual trips to France to visit their mother’s family. These escapades were their “tutoring by osmosis,” and when they grew up, married, and opened homes of their own, their husbands quickly learned that their wives inherited their parents’ passion. The family collection grew as these ladies pursued Tehran’s, Qashqai’s, Senneh’s, and Serapis in addition to their “father’s genres” for their homes in the Hamptons, Aspen, and Paris.

“Rugs were everywhere in all of our homes,” the seller confessed when she and several of the family’s 3rd generation contacted us. “For my brothers, fine antique rugs are something to live with. For my sister and I, they were something to be totally absorbed in.”

We are elated that the extended family approached us interested in selling over 100 pieces from their treasury. Both generations primarily dealt with European dealers, who had far more developed access to top-tier rugs than American dealers at that time. The family members only discovered Claremont later in their lives and made many of their last acquisitions through us.

This web gallery features 50 rugs at a time. As they sell, they will be replaced by other  carpets from the Collection.

This staggered presentation of the collection is to make it possible for the sellers to achieve the great logistical feat  of gathering and shipping the rugs from homes and in storage from different parts of the world. Then for us the job of cataloguing, photographing, writing about and reviewing the restoration needs each piece by our specialists, while running an active retail business, is a gargantuan undertaking. Interestingly, it also is more fun – giving our clients and ourselves the time to appreciate each and every sterling piece.

This collection represents an unprecedented opportunity to view and purchase exemplary rugs simply no longer available in today’s market. This event is by invitation only.

Return to The Gold Coasts Collection Gallery — Click Here

*Since this is a special invitational event for our established clients only,
we ask that you do not pay via trade-ins.