Jan D Winitz

Life and career

Winitz was born in 1955, New York City, the younger of two sons. His father, Dr. Milton Winitz, was a biochemist who worked for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). After graduating from high school in Palo Alto, CA, in 1973, he enrolled at the University of California (Berkeley). He obtained a Bachelor of Arts double degree in English and German language and literature in 1977 and a master's degree in Education in 1978, from the same school. Upon graduation, he became a high school English and German teacher at Sonoma Valley High School, Sonoma, CA. While teaching, he met his future wife, Christine, and together they pursued their mutual interest in antique Oriental rugs, buying and selling carpets privately.

In 1980, Winitz abandoned his teaching career, creating Claremont Rug Company with Christine at its present location, and became president of the company, a title he continues to hold. Starting with an initial inventory of 40 rugs, Winitz developed a following in Northern California as a keynote speaker at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in 1985. By the late-1980s, Winitz built the Claremont inventory to nearly 700 rugs, obtained in private transactions, employing a network of buyer/collectors who sought rugs globally. Currently, its inventory has grown to 3500 antique Persian and tribal rugs. Its collection focuses on rare styles favor by collectors, including 19th century Persian Bakshaish, Ferahan Sarouk and Caucasian rugs. Introduced to the world of antique Oriental rugs by a close family member while he was a young child, he purchased his first rug as a teenager. His first substantial acquisition a circa 1800 Persian Bakshaish “Dragon and Phoenix” rug purchased in 1974 still hangs behind his desk.

Winitz has been interviewed and featured in many regional, national and international publications and art/antique periodicals, including Apollo magazine, Art & Antiques magazine, Art News magazine,Carpet Collector magazine, the Financial Times of London, the New York Times, Nonstop (a publication for private owners of Gulfstream aircraft), Private Air/Luxury Home magazine Robb Report and Robb Report Collector, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Wall Street Journall and Worth Magazine. In 1985, he authored the “The Guide to Purchasing an Oriental rug).

Winitz has consistently held the opinion that the finest Oriental rugs from the Second Golden Age are exceptional works of art, recognized by rug connoisseurs but severely undervalued relative to other similar antiquities. In 2014, he created the Rug Pyramid as a means to distinguish the six levels of Oriental rugs that exist and their relative collecting and investment value. He is a regular editorial contributor client publications produced by AXA and Chubb insurance companies. The Wall Street Journal wrote a feature article about Winitz “Persian Rugs Orient One Expert to Life on the Road” that appeared in its November 17, 2015 issue.

Claremont Rug Company

Since its founding in 1980, Claremont Rug Company has acquired private collections of 19th century rugs from individuals and families located in North America, Europe and South America. Claremont was introduced to the Internet in the late-1990s by John Warnock, long-time Silicon Valley client who was chairman of Adobe Systems, a major global technology company. As of 2015, more than 60 per cent of Claremont client transactions involved the Internet. The company provides an in-home service in the United States which involves as many 100 rugs brought to a client’s residence for evaluation with Winitz as the onsite advisor.

In 2009, Claremont Rug Company was named a “Best of the Best” antique gallery by Robb Report magazine, the only rug dealer to have received the accolade