The Ercol Windsor, Butterfly & Stacking Chairs

Simple & Handsome Seats From the Master of Understatement

Feb 15, 2009

Building on the success of the designer's early bentwood furniture designs, the Windsor, Butterfly & Stacking Chairs are well-crafted British design classics.

The Ercol Windsor, Butterfly and Stacking chairs speak of designer Lucian Ercol's dedication to fine craftsmanship and his keen appreciation of traditional English design sensibilities. In comparison with other Modernist classics, Ercol’s simple pieces might at first sight seem bland, the unassuming wallflowers of the post-war Modernist oeuvre. However, when one comes to appreciate the designer's genius for making a virtue of sobriety, the chairs' longevity – and, indeed, ubquity – is not hard to understand.

The Ercol Windsor Chair

Ercol perfected his now renowned steam-worked bentwood design methodology when fashioning the “Windsor Bow” for his prototypic Windsor chair. This earlier chair was crafted from a piece of handsome English elm and was the result of a commission by the British Board of Trade, who required 100,000 low-cost chairs to furnish their offices. Ercol’s take on the immemorial Windsor chair – the design dates back over 300 years – remains instantly recognisable today. The piece's solid seat and legs are perfectly offset by the delicate peacock flourish of the struts that form the back rest.

The Butterfly Chair

The two chairs that followed this early success – the Butterfly and the Stacking chairs – employed this bentwood design, but replaced the Windsor’s elm with a two-tone elm and beech. Both chair’s have a chunkier and sturdier aesthetic than their precursor. Given Ercol’s particularly European sensibilities, it comes as some surprise to discern a number of similarities with the Eames’ LCW Wood. This is especially the case with the two generous chunks of butterfly-shaped wood that provide the seat and back-rest and sturdy tubular-shaped legs that taper as they meet the floor.

The Stacking Chair

The Stacking Chair sports a more austere design than that of the Butterfly. Where the latter’s sculptured curves and simple stylishness are quick to reveal the chair's craftsmanship, the Stacking chair is perhaps slow to please the aesthetic eye. Its seat is a more pared down piece of wood and the support that makes the back rest pays only a cursory nod to aesthetic niceties. However, the piece’s lack of fuss and - as it name suggests - stackability have meant sitters in all number of canteens, schools and meeting rooms have found the chair meets their needs.

Ercol Prices and Sizes

Original Windsor, Butterfly and Stacking chairs are today still manufactured by the Buckinghamshire-based Ercol furniture company. The Butterfly chair retails at £395.00; the Stacking chair: £392.00; and the Windsor chair starts at £220.00.

The copyright of the article The Ercol Windsor, Butterfly & Stacking Chairs in Collectibles is owned by Christopher Wilson. Permission to republish The Ercol Windsor, Butterfly & Stacking Chairs in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.