The chair we had repaired just before Christmas was the Victorian Captain’s Chair the family had given me last year. It was in need of improved refurbishment, so we placed it in the capable hands of
Andrew Sharp Antiques in Brockenhurst who
repaired and tightened all the loose joints, including putting a new rod in a leg that had been broken in the past, replacing the now desiccated old glue with longer lasting animal glue.
A pair of plugs in the arms were replaced with ones furnished from
oak which matches the grain of the now firm limbs.
Albeit without the recent fierce winds, today’s continuing rain had turned to sleet by the time we arrived at Andrew’s workshop to collect an Art Deco carver chair of which I had broken the back a few years ago, and replace it with another, not broken, but in need of a similar strengthening that he had effected on the desk chair.
Here the craftsman shows his work on the broken chair, including reinforcing the hessian seat with substantial yet invisible wooden blocks, taken, like the plugs mentioned above from
his collection of offcuts enabling him to match the wood used in the original items,
in the case of the carver, being maple, with a bone insert decorating the central rib of the back.
I really enjoy the character of the small room where Andrew and his employee, Jason, work their miracles.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s tasty cottage pie; pure white cauliflower; firm carrots and Brussels sprouts, with which she drank Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2023 and I drank Paarl Shiraz 2023.
