Six rubber stamps from Olivo & Bakirgian

Six rubber stamps from Olivo & Bakirgian, textile merchants of Manchester, which accompany an extensive company archive.

Members of staff at Olivo & Bakirgian used these stamps on official company documents. The company’s business records were conducted using paper and ink in a time before digital technology.

Olivo & Bakirgian was a textile merchant company established in 1881 when Bedros, Nazareth and Zachariah Bakirgian joined Marco Olivo in the business he had founded in 1849. The Bakirgian family was Armenian and played a central role in the Armenian community in Manchester.

Olivo & Bakirgian initially had offices on Chepstow Street, Manchester, and Smyrna (the city of Smyrna has been known as İzmir since around 1930). During the First World War their trading expanded to South America, Egypt, India, Russia and China. The Bakirgians had family links in Chile which enabled their commercial interests to expand into Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. The company also traded in Australia.

In 1923, the company purchased a mill in north Lancashire which operated 525 textile looms. In 1927, the subsidiary company Collins (Manufacturers) Limited was formed to supply the home trade market.

In 1928, another subsidiary company, Northern Sudan Estates Limited, purchased a 3,000 acre cotton plantation near Atbara in Sudan. Olivo & Bakirgian ceased trading in 1985.