June 18, 2004 - Fallingwater Friday
June 18, 2004 - Fallingwater Friday
| This leather sling chair, commonly known as the Butterfly Chair, was one of a number of chairs introduced into Fallingwater's collection by Edgar Kaufmann, jr. (sic).Argentinean designers Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Antonio Bonet, and Juan Kurchan originally adapted this 1938 design from the Tripolina Campaign Chair used by British officers. They replaced the wood structure with one piece of bent steel, leaving the seat canvas or leather. The seat slips onto the frame with inverted pockets to form a sling. The chair, which now sits in Edgar Kaufmann, Sr.'s study, was included in Kaufmann, jr.'s 1950 MOMA publication What is Modern Design? Sometimes called the “BKF” in honor of its three creators, the Butterfly Chair was conceived as furnishing for a Buenos Aires apartment building also designed by Bonet, Kurchan, and Ferrari-Hardoy, the Edificio Charcas. However, the chair soon became tremendously popular and is now seen in many locations. It has been mass-produced since 1947 by Knoll International, whose original manufacturing plant was located in East Greenville, Pennsylvania. Kaufmann, jr. said that the two chairs he acquired for Fallingwater “were the first ones that ever came to this country…they were the granddaddies of them all.”
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