An Early IKEA Catalog


 By Bruce Shawkey

Here is an early IKEA catalog from 1950, long before the company came to the United States. The catalog's language is in Swedish. The written part on the cover roughly translate to English as follows, using Google's language converter:

Go ahead - here it is! 

Each new price list, which we hereby submit, this time contains a significantly increased number of articles. Size and scope it cannot be compared with the distinguished catalogues, which you may also, but do us the favor of looking through it and comparing our prices with others in the market. 

The past year has brought us more than 10,000 new customers, an outstanding success, made possible by good goods at the absolute lowest prices, solid treatment and our customers' trust. 

To those of you who are receiving our price list for the first time: Give us a sample order, so that YOU can convince yourself that our offers are the most favorable that anyone can make. If you are not fully satisfied, YOU will get your money back. You can sit at home in peace and quiet and choose what suits you and when YOU then receive the goods, you will probably think, like so many others, that it is both convenient and profitable to shop with us. 

With a sincere thank you for the trust placed in us over the past years, we welcome all our customers, old and new, all over the country with your orders, which we shall carry out to your complete satisfaction. Sincerely, IKEA

All orders take place under our guarantee: Full satisfaction or your money back.

-----------------------------------------------------

There are just 15 pages to the catalog Assembly is NOT required on any item like it is today, and no "press board" is used on any furniture item like it is today. Here is a piece of furniture from the 1950 catalog:



 Prices are in Krona, and one krona is subdivided into 100 öre. This particular chair is priced at 124.50 Krona, which coverts to $12.24 U.S. dollars.

A brief history of IKEA:

In 1943, then-17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA as a mail-order sales business, and began to sell furniture five years later. The first store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, under the name Möbel-IKÉA (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish). IKEA came to the United States in 1985. In addition to put-together furniture, IKEA sells just about anything you would need to furnish a home, right down to plastic plants and silverware. There's even a cafeteria in each store which services employees and customers, and Swedish-style food may be purchased to take home. I particularly like their meatballs and lingonberry spread.

IKEA is an acronym that stands for Ingvar Kamprad (the founder's name), Elmtaryd (the farm where the founder grew up), and Agunnaryd (the founder's hometown).


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