Well, it's mainly that I wanted somewhere where the article of furniture in question would fairly probably be a settee but would also be somewhere Bunter or a shell-shocked Lord Peter would have an excuse to appear.

I didn't think about the beards! Sadly, I think Mr. Chatterjee is unlikely to be a Muslim, although to be honest, it's probably not that likely a surname for someone currently acting as a manservant, seeing as I chose it from 'Indian names I think I've come across in pre-WWII detective fiction' rather than 'Indian names with a history likely to suggest a likely backstory'. Feel free to do my work for me invent unlikely backstory...