Ingrid Dessau On Sale

Renowned for her striking, skillfully crafted rugs and carpets made with harmonious color combinations and rich geometric and minimalist patterns, iconic textile designer Ingrid Dessau played an integral role in introducing traditional Scandinavian rug design to the world during the mid-20th century.

Dessau was born in 1923 in Svalöv, an area of Sweden known for its roots in Skåne handicraft traditions. At age 17, she studied weaving, composition, loom-pattern weaving and tapestry at the prestigious Konstfack (University of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm. Later, she documented folk textiles in watercolor paintings for an archival project at the Kristianstad County Handicraft Association, followed by an internship under textile pioneer Barbro Lundberg-Nilsson at Märta Måås-Fjetterström’s workshop in Bâstad.

In the late 1940s, Dessau won scholarships to study folk crafts in the United States. After traveling to New York City, she met and married Kaj Dessau, a Danish entrepreneur and director of legendary silverware firm Georg Jensen. 

While living in New York, the city’s atmosphere and skylines greatly inspired Dessau’s rug designs. Her best known work, a handmade wall hanging called Manhattan, depicts New York City at night, with rows of woven skyscrapers. The mid-century modern tapestry was included in an exhibition titled “Scandinavian Design and USA — People, Encounters and Ideas, 1890-1980” held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo, Norway.

Throughout the 1960s, Dessau produced an impressive collection of Swedish flat-weave rugs such as her reversible, Scandinavian modern Sylarna rug and a range of double-sided carpets featuring intricate patterns and tonal colors. She also designed several Western European and Indian-style rugs and area carpets for manufacturers including Malmöhus Läns Hemslöjd, Doris Leslie Blau and Kinnasand, where she worked as a designer.

Over the course of her career, Dessau received numerous commissions from embassies, banks and museums throughout Europe and North America. Today, her rugs, carpets and tapestries are highly sought by interior designers and collectors of 20th-century Scandinavian textiles.

On 1stDibs, find a range of vintage Ingrid Dessau rugs and carpets.

Good antique rugs and vintage rugs have made their way into homes across the globe, becoming fixtures used for comfort, prayer and self-expression, so choosing the right area rug is officially a universal endeavor.

In modern usage, “carpet” typically denotes a wall-to-wall floor cushioning that is fixed to the floor. Rugs, on the other hand, are designed to cover a specific area and can easily be moved to new locations. However, the terms are interchangeable in many parts of the world, and, in the end, it won’t matter what you decide to call it.

It’s well known that a timeless Persian rug or vintage Turkish rug can warm any interior, but there are lots of other styles of antique rugs to choose from when you're endeavoring to introduce fresh colors and textures to a bedroom or living room.

Moroccan Berber rugs are not all about pattern. In fact, some of the most striking examples are nearly monochrome. But what these rugs lack in complexity, they make up for in brilliant color and subtle variation. Moroccan-style interiors can be mesmerizing — a sitting room of this type might feature a Moroccan rug, carved wooden screens and a tapestry hung behind the sofa.

Handwoven kilim rugs, known for their wealth of rich colors and unique weaving tradition, are pileless: Whereas the Beni Ourain rugs of Morocco can be described as dense with a thick surface or pile, an authentic kilim rug is thin and flat. (The term “kilim” is Turkish in origin, but this type of textile artistry is practiced all across the Balkans, throughout the Arab world and elsewhere.) 

When it comes to eye-catching floor coverings, the distinctive “medallion” pattern of Oushak rugs has two types of rounded shapes alternating against a rich red or blue background created with natural dyes, while the elaborate “star” pattern involves large eight-pointed shapes in diagonal rows alternating with diamonds.  

If you’re looking for something unexpected, find a runner rug that pops in your hallway or on your stairs. Dig for dazzling geometric patterns in our inventory of mid-century modern rugs and carpets, which includes works designed by the likes of Swedish textile masters Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Marianne Richter and other artisans. 

Carpets and rugs have been around for thousands of years. Prehistoric humans turned to animal skin, wool and fur to craft simple fabrics to soften hard terrain. A 2016 study suggests that "cave lions" were hunted for exactly this purpose, and that decorating your cave with their pelts may have conferred strength and prestige. Although many of these early textiles are still in existence, tracing their precise origins is difficult. Carpets quickly became such a valuable trade commodity that the weavings could easily travel far from their places of origin. 

The oldest known carpet was found in southern Siberia. (It may have traveled there from Persepolis in Iran.) For the flat-weave floor rugs crafted by Native Americans, cotton was the primary material before sheep’s wool was introduced in the 16th century. In Europe, carpet-making was fundamental to folk art, and Asian carpets imported to European countries were at one time considered a precious luxury and not intended to remain permanently on the floor. 

With the variety of area rugs and carpets rolled out for you on 1stDibs — a collection that includes traditional, modern, minimalist rugs and other coverings of all kinds — things will be looking up whenever you’re looking down.