IKEA was founded in the 1940s, so why are you showing no catalogues from before 1951?
The first catalogue did not come out until 1951. Before that, IKEA was a mail order company that didn’t sell furniture, but pens, clocks, electric razors, wallets and bags. At that time, the range was only presented in a small mail order brochure called ikéa-nytt (literally ikéa news). Sometimes it was distributed as a supplement in farming paper Jordbrukarnas Föreningsblad, which reached hundreds of thousands of people in the Swedish countryside. From autumn 1948 Ingvar Kamprad started including furniture in the range, and things quickly grew from there. In the 1950 ikéa-nytt, as many as six of the 18 pages featured furniture. And when you look at the 1951 catalogue, you’ll see that there are no more pens and wallets. Ingvar Kamprad was now truly focusing on home furnishing, and shelving the rest.
Browse through all issues of ikéa-nytt.