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Before BRIO became synonymous with the wooden railway sets found in playrooms across the world, it was a basket-weaving workshop in rural Scania. Ivar Bengtsson founded the company in 1884 in the village of Boalt, crafting wicker products for local households. When his three sons took over in 1908, they renamed the business BRIO, an acronym for Bröderna Ivarsson i Osby (the Ivarsson Brothers of Osby), and began shifting production toward wooden toys. That decision rooted the company in a material and a craft tradition that would define it for more than a century.
The early catalogue was remarkably diverse. By 1914 BRIO offered 6,000 items through mail-order and travelling salesmen, ranging from kitchen utensils to games. But toys increasingly dominated, and one product became a national sensation: the Göinge horse, a painted wooden pull-along toy produced from 1907 to 1960, which was the best-selling toy in Sweden during the first half of the twentieth century. Its simple, sturdy design embodied the BRIO philosophy of toys built to survive generations of play.
The wooden railway system, introduced in 1958, became BRIO's signature product and arguably the most influential toy train concept ever devised. The interlocking track pieces, connected by a simple peg-and-hole system that small hands could manage without adult help, created an open-ended play format. Children designed their own layouts, added bridges and tunnels, and populated the tracks with engines and wagons that required no batteries or winding mechanisms. The system's genius lay in its expandability; new sets and accessories could be added indefinitely, making BRIO a gift that grew with the child. The company may have been the first to use the peg-and-hole connection system in mass production, establishing a standard that competitors would follow.
In 1984, BRIO celebrated its centenary by opening the Lekoseum, a toy museum at the Osby headquarters showcasing the company's history alongside toys from other manufacturers. The museum became a destination for families and design enthusiasts drawn to the story of Swedish toy craftsmanship. In 2015, BRIO was acquired by the German games company Ravensburger Group, which maintained the brand's identity while expanding its global distribution. The wooden railway line was rebranded as BRIO World in 2016.
At auction, vintage BRIO toys have carved out a distinct niche in the Scandinavian collectibles market. With nearly 200 items recorded on Auctionist, BRIO material appears across houses including Markus Auktioner, Auktionshuset Kolonn, Stockholms Auktionsverk, and Thelin and Johansson. Early wooden toys, particularly boxed sets in original packaging like "Flottan till sjöss," attract the strongest collector interest, with top results reaching around 6,000 EUR. The market also includes BRIO-branded jewellery and accessories from later diversification periods.