OAKLAND, CA.- Claremont Rug Company founder/president Jan David Winitz says that more than half his clients are choosing to acquire antique Oriental rugs to display as wall art.

The interest in using rugs on walls in addition to as floor pieces has increased markedly in the past several years. "Art collectors are increasingly coming to me after having studied our website with requests that involve high collectible and connoisseur level pieces to serve as wall art.

"They tell me that, compared to other art and antiques that they collect, Oriental rugs are undervalued both as art and as investments." He attributes recognition to the education-oriented information on the Claremont website. "What they deeply appreciate is our 'Oriental Rug Pyramid,' which divides carpets into six tiers, with Level 1 to Level 6. It is instructional and a graphic depiction, allowing them to make informed decisions."

Claremont (www.claremontrug.com), founded in 1980, has more than 2500 antique rugs from the Second Golden Age of Persian Weaving (ca. 1800 to ca. 1910) in its trove. Its clients reside on six continents and have internet access to over 1000 images of rugs to discover.


Eclectic art connoisseurs are attuned to opportunities to enjoy objets d’art that their taste. This collector of 19th century Caucasian and nomad carpets has found perhaps the ideal way to display this prized allover boteh (“seed of life”) piece by surrounding it with carvings from European, Near East and Far East traditions. Prominent wall placement means the viewer can take in at a glance the captivating common threads between these diverse and compelling works.

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Hallways present a unique opportunity for display, with successive, adjacent wall and floor zones bringing a curated selection of rugs into close, immediate proximity for maximum artistic effect. Here, the High-Collectible, antique area size Qashqai (wall), Kazak (floor, foreground) and Baku (floor, background) serve as a lens focusing the rapt attention of all who encounter them. The evocative golden contours surrounding the Qashqai’s luminous diamond ivory medallion bring out the very different ivory medallions present in the one-of-a-kind Caucasian pieces on the floor.

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Fine art connoisseurs are discovering the splendor of displaying art-level rugs on their walls, where the myriad nuances of color and design are at eye level. In this exquisite setting, a Ferahan Sarouk on the wall and a Laver Kirman on the floor enhance each other’s beauty.