I was quite surprised to come across an old catalog page for this butterfly chair, as both designer and manufacturer are well-known for chairs completely different to this chair. In fact, the designer and manufacturer's other pieces are very different from each other.
Add to the equation that this design came well after the original Hardoy butterfly chair that this very closely resembles. I have a hard time believing that the well-decorated designer and manufacturer would issue a design that pretty much falls under the "knockoff" category.
I expect that a couple of people here have seen this catalog page already. My challenge to those individuals is to find an actual photo example of this chair, as this catalog image is the only image I can find of not only this chair, but also the designer/manufacturer relationship itself.
Perhaps this is a pair?:
http://www.bruun-rasmussen.dk/search.do?mode=detail&iid=300495765
Note the ones in the photo appear to be canvas (duck), but the part you cropped out mentions leather as an option, for quite a bit more....
Or perhaps this one? Obviously not labeled, but it looks more proportionately correct for the image posted, and it was sold in Denmark:
http://www.lauritz.com/da/auktion/jorge-ferrari-hardoy-butterfly-chair-f...
Another?:
http://www.lauritz.com/da/auktion/hvilestol-butterfly-chair-flagermussto...
These chairs are mighty hard to tell apart.
You are getting closer but still not correct Leif.
The chairs in the catalog page seems wider and the part between the "ears" seems almost straight on the catalog chai.
Since i saw that page i have been looking at hundreds of these chairs but not find a good match.
But as you say they are very hard to tell apart and play tricks with your eyes....
Yes, I figured leif would have already come across this catalog page, and probably jesgord as well.
However, the geometry between the "ears" of the catalog photo appears different to me than the two listings you posted. The catalog photo looks less elegant to me than the shape in the 2nd (Hardoy) link.
Leif, any thoughts as to what this design is doing attributed to this designer/manufacturer. It is around 20 years after the Argentinian Hardoy design, and does not improve up the original design. And since it is very difficult to find a confirmed example online, we can assume it was not a very popular model.
Frankly speaking, unless you somehow stumble across this catalog page online, I can't imagine how anyone would get this quiz correct, seeing as there is not even an established relationship otherwise between designer and manufacturer.
Lets just say i was alerted by the guy who found the catalog 🙂
Without saying to much, but in the years when this chair was supposedly "designed" the mystery designer did stray work for many different manufacturers around Europe including his native country.
Later in the 60´s he found more solid working partners and found his "true voice" so to speak.
I also find it hard to believe that this particular designer is responsible for a knock off of a well known chair from 30 years earlier, but that is the case it seems. It clearly was not the finest moment for said designer.
There are tons of vintage butterfly chairs that have sold at auction in Denmark, and I suspect that I have probably looked at one of these without knowing it. I doubt they were marked in a long lasting fashion if at all. And they are probably sold uncredited, or credited to Hardoy.
I am honestly more surprised about the manufacturer than the designer, why would they want somehting like this in their line?
As i wrote above Verner was working for whoever paid him around this time in his life and he did make more questionable design in the early to mid 60´s.
I did find this picture of the man himself in his appartment in Binningen from the late 60´s.
Looking at the ears and general proportions I believe it is the same version of the chair.
I will write an email to Marianne Panton and ask her if they have something more in their archives about this.
I think we have a winner. I would readily believe that Verner Panton would have his own butterfly chair in his own apartment, rather than someone else's butterfly chair.
I would speculate the Bovirke, as the factory maker that started producing Finn Juhl designs very early on (early 1950s), was probably beginning to see slowing sales of the Juhl stuff by the 1960s. All of Juhl's design was not doing well by then. So, I could imagine that Bovirke was looking for some next thing. The latter part of this Bovirke catalog does have a sort of "experimental" feel to it.
I just don't even know how Bovirke would have even felt comfortable producing a design so close the well known Hardoy Butterfly chair....
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