This circa-1950 vintage Swedish pile area rug features a large rectangular center surrounded by a checkerboard pattern in alternating shades of light and dark brown, bordered by scrolling vine-like patterns in white. The grid-like precision of the midcentury vintage carpet is minimalist and modern. In Sweden, carpets and Scandinavian design rugs have been hand-knotted in wool for centuries, taking on many different forms and functions over the course of time. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the craft was seen as being an important artistic and cultural practice throughout Sweden, and designers began to make Vintage oriental rugs that had a broad international appeal. Scandinavian antique rugs from the mid-twentieth century, endorsed by such fixtures of modernism as Le Corbusier, Ray, and Frank Lloyd Wright, remain among the most desirable and sought after in the rug world.