Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 18 August 2007

When staying with a friend some months ago, I foolishly dropped a small Clarice Cliff dish which broke into several pieces.

issue 18 August 2007

Q. When staying with a friend some months ago, I foolishly dropped a small Clarice Cliff dish which broke into several pieces. Knowing his penurious state, one in which as a pensioner I share, I offered to pay for it. He accepted, telling me that he had paid $500 (approximately £200) for it. During a recent telephone conversation he casually mentioned that he’d been able to repair the dish with little evidence of the accident. Am I being unreasonable in wondering why he has neither given me the dish for which, after all, I’d paid, nor offered to refund at least part of the $500?
M.H., NSW, Australia

A. Even when invisibly mended, the overall integrity of the dish will have been compromised in the eyes of a collector. Consequently its value will have been reduced — although not quite to the tune of $500. Jog your friend’s memory by procuring some merit-free, pre-damaged china from a charity shop.

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