In the grand manner: Churchill-Crocker Galleries are the purveyors of fine things In the grand manner: Churchill-Crocker Galleries are the purveyors of fine things (April 28, 2004)

By Jane Knoerle
Almanac Lifestyles Editor

"I always wanted to have an English drawing room, and this is the closest I'll ever get to it," says Justin Jacobs of his Churchill-Crocker Galleries, which recently opened at 704 Santa Cruz Ave. in downtown Menlo Park.

All the appointments to an elegant English country house are there at the galleries: from the "masterpiece" oil paintings and period furniture to Persian rugs. Sterling silver, porcelain artworks, period clocks and statues, known as "objects of virtue" in the trade, abound in the 3,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by J Floral Art.

Where did the name Churchill-Crocker Galleries come from? "I spent a lot of time in England, and I'm a big fan of Winston Churchill. And Crocker was my first wife's maiden name," says Mr. Jacobs.

Churchill-Crocker Galleries was located at 1164 Chestnut St. in Menlo Park for three years before vacating the space to make room for Mr. Jacobs' real estate firm, Landbank Investments. Mr. Jacobs, an Atherton resident, is a developer who has built 35 to 40 office and light industrial buildings in Silicon Valley. He also practiced law in San Francisco for 10 years before going into real estate. "I'm a very eclectic person," he says with a laugh.

Mr. Jacobs says he started Churchill-Crocker Galleries "because it gives me an excuse to go to England." He buys everything that is featured in the galleries. "From my travels I learned to like antiques and acquired a taste for them," he says. He finds many items at auctions and antique shows, and has learned "not to make the same mistake twice."

The galleries' walls are covered with oil paintings. Primarily pre-1920s realistic art pieces, they are priced from $150 to $10,000, with most in the $1,000 to $2,000 range. "I buy what I like," he says.

At least half of Churchill-Crocker's business comes from its many art services that include museum-quality framing, cleaning, restoration and conservation of oil paintings, French-lined mats, large color copies of art and photographic restorations.

Elizabeth Stafford, the galleries' master designer and framer, specializes in cleaning and restoring oil paintings. "See this painting? It was ready for the garbage can before Elizabeth worked on it," says Mr. Jacobs. When the painting was cleaned, the brown cliffs shown were revealed to be rose, he says.

In the upstairs loft Ms. Stafford carefully repairs rips and tears and cleans canvases that have been ravaged by water, smoke and dirty varnish. "Elizabeth lives and breathes her work. If you have a $10,000 painting, she will know how to handle it," says Mr. Jacobs.

Staff member Stacey Turcotte, herself an artist, works with Ms. Stafford in preparing French-lined mats and hand-wrapped fabric mats. Ms. Turcotte, who has a fine arts degree from San Jose State University, also makes giclee or high-quality art prints using a large-format printer.

Giclee is a French term meaning to spray or squirt, which is how an inkjet printer works. The process used for giclee prints involves reproduction equipment much larger than the standard desktop inkjet printer. The prints can be reproduced on paper or on canvas.

The large-format printer also allows Ms. Turcotte to take a postcard-size painting, enlarge it to many times its size, and reproduce it on canvas.

Churchill-Crocker Galleries is managed by Santina Green, a native of Sorrento, Italy. Ms. Green studied art in Europe and was a member of a fine arts collective in San Mateo before going to work for Mr. Jacobs. She and Ms. Stafford are both interested in creative writing.

"Everyone here is interested in the arts and we consider everything in this room a form of art," says Mr. Jacobs.

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