The ancient Persian carpet of the Lobby-Bar
The wrong carpet was sold at the Palace of the Swiss Federal Assembly...
In the diary of the memories of Giulio Schmid (*1933 - †2016), 3rd generation of the family of the managing proprietors of the hotel, we read this curious anecdote:
"In the 1940s, with the renovation of the main lobby, Alice and Otto Schmid had a new carpet made to measure (a specialist for Persian carpets was a company in St. Gallen, Switzerland) and they decided the type of hand woven carpet and its colours.
They insisted on specifying the colour red: strawberry red, wine red and in no case rust red or brown.
When the carpet arrived the following year, the great drama took place - tears - sadness - insomnia... because the predominant colour was precisely rust red.
The supplier recognized the mistake and had the carpet, which is still in the lobby, remade to measure, and of course it now worn out in some areas after 80 years of existence.
At our request, we were informed that the St. Gallen-based company was able to resell the first carpet at the Palace of the Swiss Federal Assembly in Bern, the capital of Switzerland." (Giulio Schmid, 2006)