Q. A friend with a house in London which he
only uses sporadically had me to stay the night but left before I did the next morning. I sat down on a chair in his drawing room and went straight through it. I have been mortified to learn — from a mutual acquaintance — that this chair, whose seat was made of cane, was never intended to be sat on and was merely decorative. I feel such a clumsy brute. I had no idea that such a thing as a merely decorative chair existed. My friend is away for another six weeks. How can I have the chair repaired without taking it out of the house? I have a key, but am worried that if I send the chair away my friend’s mother may notice it is missing and think it has been stolen.
G.H., Brighton A. Simply telephone Ray Sharpless, known as the ‘Wicker Man’, who has been mending chairs around central London for many years, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him. Hoorays and yobs alike have been falling through cane seats since time immemorial and Ray Sharpless comes to your home and mends it on the spot, or , if the weather is good, he sits in the street outside doing it. A well-known figure in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, he charges something like £3 per ‘hole’ in the seat frame to reseat a cane chair for a typical £70 to £100. Ray’s number is 0845 331 2704.
If you have a problem, write to Dear Mary, c/o The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP.
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