The family argument about a chair may contain years that nobody is naming directly.

Arguments about furniture are almost never about furniture. The heat comes from somewhere older: who was there at the end, who was asked and who was not, who felt overlooked for a long time before any of this. An object is easier to argue about than any of that, because it has edges and can be won.

If a division of things has turned sharp, it may help to ask what else is in the room. Not as an accusation, just a quiet question about what the object has come to stand for, and whether the older matter could be said out loud instead.