Jan David Winitz has spent most of his life thinking about antique Persian rugs. A close family member, one of the few women involved in the collecting niche in the mid-20th century originally spurred his interest and passion. “While collecting baseball cards and playing sports as a child,” he remembers, “I was also looking at rugs with her, asking questions and being drawn in by their majesty and beauty.”

More than 50 years later, he is the world’s foremost dealer in art-level rugs woven during the “Second Golden Age of Persian of Weaving,” circa 1800 to circa 1910. But his success is not simply borne of passion. He has built Claremont’s original trove from 40 rugs to more than 2500, enlarging his client base from the San Francisco Bay Area to encompassing 40 countries on six continents. To accomplish that level of success, he has developed a business model based on education, access, and client service. “And, of course,” he reminds, “we have meticulously built an extensive collection of elite-level antique Persian and tribal rugs that simply are not available anywhere else.”

Although articles that adhere to the “The Secrets of My Success” narrative are never in short supply, Winitz doesn’t believe in secrets or shortcuts. “We have never hidden how we built our global gallery,” he says. “We have always believed in giving our clients the tools they need to become educated buyers and collectors.”

What is he most proud of?

That’s not an easy question for him, but he does find tremendous satisfaction in knowing that more than half of his clients are repeat customers, some of whom have bought over and over again for more than three decades. He says, “It’s apparent that we are impassioned about the art of antique Persian carpets, and our clients trust that.”

He still works from his office at Claremont, which he founded in 1980. It is in the exact physical location that the gallery still occupies, albeit now encompassing three adjacent buildings and four separate showrooms. Behind his desk, hanging on a wall, is an early 19th-century Persian Bakshaish “Dragon and Phoenix” carpet that he acquired while in college. It is not for sale, but he says it would attract a price in the very high six-figure neighborhood if it came to market. “I paid $3500 in 1970.” However, the rug has fond memories for him and has intrinsic value far beyond and different from any monetary evaluation.

“The rug epitomizes all of the qualities that can be attributed to the work of art that it is,” he says. “It represents the culture of the people (primarily women) who wove it and the philosophies of their tribe and their world. Its visual and emotional impact is apparent to all who see it, whether they have a background in antique rugs or not.”

For Winitz, the term “intrinsic value” is a reference that goes beyond financial assets. Because the finest rugs are increasingly acquired for private collections, for the last decade, he has been explaining to clients that he believes they are the last generation to have access to the finest examples of antique Oriental rugs woven during the Second Golden Age. They represent a level of craftsmanship, dye work, and overall artistic merit that cannot be duplicated. For collectors and art aficionados, they are the epitome of rugs produced and still extant.

“We recognized early on that serious art collectors often were unfamiliar with the antique Oriental rug collecting niche. We identified the greatest stumbling block for newcomers was gaining sufficient orientation and exposure to take the first step.”

Winitz, for three years a high school teacher after graduating with an MA in Education from UC Berkeley, understood upon opening his gallery that in dealing with clients who had the means to obtain whatever they wanted, access to significant pieces of art would be paramount to building relationships.