The history of the Butterfly Chair
… or also: Butterfly Chair, Bat Chair, Hardoy Chair or BKF Chair
The Hardoy Butterfly Chair (also known as the Hardoy Chair or BKF Chair) is a design classic from the 1940s. It is particularly popular with discerning design enthusiasts.
The BKF chair was developed by the Austral design group in Buenos Aires in 1938. The main designers, Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, gave the butterfly chair its name with their initials. When the chair won the Argentinian Design Award in 1940, Knoll began production and worldwide distribution. In the first 10 years alone, the BKF Hardoy Butterfly Chair was sold over 5 million times.
Since 1941, the BKF Butterfly Chair has been on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). It is one of the most successful exhibits here and therefore rightly bears the name design classic.
The butterfly chair is still produced by many manufacturers today. However, the original idea of achieving high quality while using sustainable materials has proven to be uneconomical for many producers. More and more frequently, heavily modified versions with inferior materials can be found on the market.
THIS IS MANUFAKTURPLUS
At MANUFAKTURPLUS, we love perfect design, swear by professional craftsmanship and are committed to a responsible approach to nature. Our products therefore combine a timeless design language with convincing durability and genuine sustainability.
The Hardoy Butterfly Chair from MANUFAKTURPLUS
Why does a piece of furniture become a design classic? Because it combines aesthetics and function. Because its shape is simple and memorable at the same time. And because it doesn’t follow fashion, but instead impresses with its unique appearance and function. These are precisely the characteristics of the legendary BUTTERFLY-CHAIR, whose organic shape is indeed reminiscent of the flapping wings of delicate butterflies.
It was designed in 1938 by the Argentinian trio of architects Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy, which is why the iconic classic also became known as the BKF HARDOY CHAIR in honour of their initials. It found its way into the New York Museum of Modern Art as early as 1941. It is still on display there today as one of originally only three protagonists. While the second original can be found in Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Fallingwater House, the third example has disappeared to this day.
In 1947, Florence and Hans Knoll acquired the rights to mass-produce the elegant armchair. Within a very short time, their HARDOY CHAIR became a style icon of its time. It is estimated that around 3,000 units were sold per week in the Los Angeles area alone in the 1950s. But success creates imitators. Replicas of inferior quality appeared on the market. More and more. Hans Knoll tried to secure the exclusive rights in court – and lost. Ultimately, this was because the Butterfly Chair had a predecessor: the folding Tripolina chair. The Englishman Joseph B. Fendby had developed and patented it in 1881.
As an Italian camping chair and mobile military furniture for the British, Tripolina itself had long since become a classic. Bonet, Kuchan and Hardoy had failed to legally protect the further development of Tripolina. Knoll therefore ceased production after just three years.
In the years that followed, the Butterfly Chair was badly criticised. Inferior materials, altered dimensions – the beautifully shaped classic had become a design commodity.
As lovers of perfect furniture, we regretted this process and decided in 2007 to build the Butterfly Chair in such a way that it is on a par with the original from 1938. We chose our name MANUFAKTURPLUS for good reason. Because just like its role model, our Butterfly Chair is made by hand using thick, naturally tanned leather hides . And because we are perfectionists, we insert unfilled piping between the seams. This increases seating comfort. We form the frames from solid steel rods into generous loops and weld them tightly together. This makes our BUTTERFLY chair a piece of furniture that will delight and outlast generations, just like its role model. Just as the inventors intended.
Even today, the icon is still produced in a wide variety of qualities in almost every corner of the world. So what makes the BUTTERFLY CHAIR from MANUFAKTURPLUS so unique? Apart from the fine craftsmanship, it is the seating comfort. Just try it out for yourself.
Care instructions:
Short facts – short and sweet
- Leather does not always require special leather care.
- You can use our recommended care products to remove soiling from the leather.
- Darkening or lightening of the leather due to exposure to light – especially UV radiation (sunlight) is completely normal and is part of a natural leather product.
- Careless use of unsuitable care products can ruin the leather by staining it – please refrain from using care products for shoes such as leather grease.
- Most of our leathers are very breathable. Stains such as red wine on an open-pored natural saddle leather cover cannot be removed even with strong cleaning agents. Due to the skin structure, these stains are distributed in the leather and become less visible. Appreciate such changes to the cover, they tell your stories.
- Leather is very forgiving – a little time is often enough and soiling/discolouration becomes less and less visible.
- Mechanical damage (scratches in the leather) can be minimised with a suitable care product and sometimes even become invisible to the eye.
The right care for the Hardoy
Our Hardoy Butterfly Chair is a piece of furniture that meets the highest quality standards. Our leathers are processed by hand in Germany. Each cover is a unique piece that is the result of labour, diligence and passion. Naturally, you want the cover to last as long as possible.
This may require much less than you think.
In principle, the cover does not require any maintenance under normal use. Regular dusting with a soft cotton cloth is completely sufficient. Our leather is very stable as it is made from the full substance (without reduction / splitting of the leather, as is the case with most furniture covers, for example). This means that even mechanical damage such as scratches are a sign of use but not a sign of wear.
Most of our leathers change colour over time. This process is completely normal and shows the naturalness of the product. Natural saddle leather, for example, darkens in colour particularly strongly because the tanning is done in this way and the surface is only hot waxed. Our aim with this leather was to achieve a good balance between protection and naturalness.
In the picture below you can see the difference between a freshly produced saddle leather and the development of the patina after normal use.
Download documentation
Bruno Wickart AG, Zug – preferred retail partner for the Hardoy armchair in the Zug, Lucerne and Zurich area
