Circa 1970s | Hand-woven wool
Derived from the name of a village in southern Sweden,
rya (pronounced REE-uh) came to mean the traditional knotted, long-pile woven wool carpets of the region. Throughout Scandinavia, the term now simply means “rug.” Ryas’ shaggy simplicity; handmade quality; and ensured durability took U.S. interior design markets by storm in the mid-20
th century. Today, fine vintage specimens are prized as art objects. This example from Denmark matches shaggy Brutalist construction with a Modernist design: playing bold, abstract shapes in old bone, dark navy, and light brick against a field of yellow-brown ocher.