Knoll Hardoy/Butterfly chair  

Do you suppose
that people bought them and put 'em outside a lot back then and ruined them? I also understand that the stitching on the leather came undone alot.

I suppose that could be it. ...
I suppose that could be it. I guess I'll just have to wait to find a decent one pop up, or settle for a repo. I read last night Knoll stopped producing them when they lost exclusive production rights. Can anyone vouch for any current versions?
Cheers,
Josh
Oh and excuse the typo in the title.

butterfly chairs
Does anyone know how to tell if you have a Knoll frame? Didn't Knoll stop making them in 1951 after they lost a copyright infringement suit? I bought two frames on Craigs List a couple weeks ago--$50 for the pair. They need paint, but still a very good deal it would seem, because there was just a single frame on Ebay for $350!

the chairs were standard ...
the chairs were standard issued in the 1950's more people had them then did not.
they were great for the the home with the back yard charcoal grill and the plastic wading pool for the kids
i Think of Norman Rockwell.
they were so mass produced knoll got out of the business, in favor of several manufactures that made them super cheap, sold at Sears, Mongromrey Wards, W.T.Grant Woolworths ,SS Kress
Names from the past,
People left them out all year round and they just weathered a way, starting with the stitching,

circa50.com
Circa50.com has repros. They also sell covers in canvas, vinyl weave for outdoors, leather, and pony hide.
I haven't bought their frames but I've gotten both the vinyl weave and the canvas covers. Their black cotton canvas faded but otherwise it held up well. We haven't used the vinyl mesh ones much yet but they look good and seem very well made. (We get too much humidity and rain to have anything but quick-dry fabrics outdoors.)
I have gotten lots of old butterfly chair frames at junk auctions over the years. I have about ten, I think. One had a broken weld but I had a friend fix it in exchange for some homemade chocolate chip cookies. The rest just needed a bit of wire brushing and two coats of flat black Rustoleum spray paint. The most I paid per chair was maybe $2. Once I got three for $2.31, which came to 77 cents each. Woohoo! (I try not to think about all the billions of hours I spent at auctions where I didn't get anything good. I mean, it's not as if you can just walk in to any auction, any time, and get butterfly chair frames for 77 cents each.)
http://circa50.com/butterflychairs.html

I would be fascinated to
read the details about the Knoll lawsuit. It might be the first attempt by a mid-century modern manufacturer to try to stop illegal contemporary exact copy knockoffs. Maybe there was some issue of the original deal with the original designer or original manufacturer, but in my opinion, the company that has the rights to make 'em should be the only one to sell 'em.
We've talked about the knockoff issue alot, here. My only jaunt into the illegal and immoral world of knockoffs are my handful of Nelson clocks, which I consider my knockoffs more wall art than important collector's items.
Soon after Knoll lost their Butterfly chair case, then companies started knocking off the Saarinen Tulip chairs, and as they say, the hits keep right on coming.
Herman Miller and Cassina have sections on their websites explaining how to tell the differences between the real McCoy and the knockffs, but I wonder how much time and money they actually spend to stop them. probably not too much.
I'd love to read more on the history of the Butterfly chair.