The story of Asadorian Rug Company dates back to 1915. In that year, nearly a century ago, Stephen Asadorian, a young man from a small village in Turkish Armenia, came to America to escape the deportations and genocide traumatizing his country. Leaving his family in Armenia, the young man, now on his own, found his way to southern Illinois. He was looking for a job in the steel manufacturing plants along the Mississippi River.

Once settled into his new surroundings, Stephen found additional work in nearby St. Louis furniture and department stores, laboring at what he loved best – weaving and rug repair, a skill he excelled at back in Armenia. There fine weavers were valued for the intricacy and delicacy of their work, creating rugs that many considered collectible works of art.

Within a few years Stephen was able to leave the foundries to follow his passion and extraordinary skills importing and repairing high quality oriental rugs. Before long, he arranged to return to Armenia and other Middle Eastern countries known for the highest quality weavers to purchase rugs to sell for his own store, Asadorian Rug Company, in St. Louis, Missouri.

Asadorian Rug Company quickly became known as the preferred source for the highest quality rugs due to Stephen’s expertise and first-hand knowledge of weaving methods and traditions. Within a few years, sons Edward and Higus joined him at the store. The growing family business thrived on the sales and service of oriental rugs as Edward’s son, Richard, and later, Higus’ son, Stephen, both joined the company, bringing fresh business perspective to blend with the their fathers’ time honored traditions.

Today, Rich and Steve helm this small company, still located at its original site in north St. Louis County. The cousins are frequently called on to give expert opinions on rare pieces for collectors and museums, and also enjoy speaking to community education classes and arts groups throughout the St. Louis community. They continue the legacy of traveling to all parts of the world in search of exquisite and rare, hand-woven rugs. In fact, their annual buying trips frequently bring the Asadorians in contact with the same families of weavers that Stephen once called upon in the early years, thus forming a bond that the Asadorians have valued deeply for three generations.

About Asadorian’s Armenian Rugs

Our first rugs were woven in a village in Northern Armenia, just one hour outside of Yerevan. Weavers wove at home on their own looms. As business grew, we established a central location in the city of Abovian, just about twenty minutes from the capital Yerevan. The city of Abovian (estimated population 50,000 to 70,000) connects strongly to surrounding rural villages where the tradition of weaving fine carpets is centuries old. Today almost all residents of Abovian were either borne in a village or have close family ties to a village. Over half of our current employees learned the trade without formal training as the traditions connected to weaving carpets integrate naturally with village life as this age old pastime is passed along by family and friends.

We buy yarn directly from sources in the Lake Sevan region. Our wool comes from local sheep, and is noted for its very high quality, durability and popularity by diverse buyers from Istanbul to Tehran.

True to age old methods, our wool is hand spun and hand carded. As a result the wool shows a very distinct character of light and dark variations when dyed. These variations often show up as “abrashes” or streaks of color variation in random areas of the woven pile. The color changes enhance the beauty and depth of color in this hand made product.

We dye our yarn in our own dye house using the finest imported dyes. Our colors are true and fast. The combination of our designs, yarn, dyes and finishing wash gives our rugs a unique character reminiscent of antique Persian carpets.

Historically, rug production in Armenia is centered around Lake Sevan, native land to most of our current weavers. Of these, half come from one village, Artsvashen which lies near the Armenian border with Azerbaijan and was subject to military occupation by the Azerbaijanies (1991 to 1994). Many of our weavers from Artsvashen emigrated to Abovian as refugees during this occupation in 1992. The rest emigrated at other times to Abovian, mostly in the late 1980s. As we expand our production, we encourage new weavers to join our training program. Carpet weaving is a very respected occupation in Armenia. Training lasts about one to two months before a weaver begins working on a full size rug. It takes about six months of training and apprenticeship before a new weaver can approach a speed comparable to a veteran. Almost all of our weavers are women. Our oldest weaver is 61, our youngest 18. Sixty-eight of our weavers are married with at least two children.

We finish our rugs with utmost care, attending to every detail through final inspection. We hope you enjoy and appreciate the quality and original look of this beautiful handmade product from Armenia.

Asadorian Rug Company – 8466 Natural Bridge Road – St. Louis, Missouri 63121