CHAIRS: VICTORIAN BALLOON-BACKS
1840-1885
The most familiar Victorian chair, made in various forms and for a variety of rooms, long after its rococo or ‘Old French’ style was generally unfashionable. The rounded seat and waisted back reflected contemporary
dress fashion.
The majority with slender cabriole legs flowing down from serpentine seat rails and ending in neat, slightly pointed French-type, or scroll feet, the scroll formed almost as a ball. Continuous narrow moulding running
along edge of seat rail  just visible beneath upholstery and down legs. D-shaped seat with serpentine front and deeply padded upholstery. Backs waisted, base of sides being continuous with back legs or formed as
carved scroll.
Most with round, literally ‘balloon-shaped’ backs with carved and sometimes pierced cross-rail, but there are several variations:
Dipped top (an early feature).
Shouldered top.
Circular or oval back, the lower curve taking the place of the cross-rail.
Upholstered Louis XV back.
Angular ‘Gothic’ shape (this was a later feature).
Dining versions with straight turned legs, become thicker and more bulbous with time. Early versions may have Regency-type drop-in seat, later a deep, sometimes moulded, show-wood seat rail. Later backs often
considerably heavier, occasionally with a vertical plate.
Typical delicate mid-Victorian parlour chair:
selection of Victorian balloon-backs and their variants. Those with straght legs were probably made after 1870.
Lighter ‘fancy’ versions were made for bedrooms, in beech with thin, turned legs splayed at the foot and joined by stretchers, canework seats, and often painted or japanned surfaces. Similar, but stained, cheap beech types mass-manufactured for country use.
Solid rosewood, walnut and mahogany. Sometimes beech, grained to simulate rosewood; or painted or japanned. Beech and birch for under-frames. Occasionally papier mache (or purporting to be so, but actually of wood with typical papier mache decoration).
Standard methods generally employed, but dowels instead of mortise-and-tenon joints became increasingly common after 1850. These may, but not necessarily, be detected by the presence of a small, single cutting
gauge mark at the side of joints. Two marks will indicate a mortise-and-tenon.
Because of their fragile construction it is not advisable to use cabriole leg versions for dining; they will not tolerate heavy use. Indeed, marriages of front and back legs are not uncommon. Check for matching timber.
Limited carving on backs, sometimes pierced; occasionally on knees too. Incised machine-carved dot-dash carving on later (often Gothic-style) versions.
Papier mache with mother-of-pearl, painted and gilt decoration on a black ground, mostly flowers and scrolls.
Polish, japanning, paint. Stain for cheapest.
VALUES
Great variations in price. Most valuable whether sets or singles  are rosewood, followed by walnut, then mahogany. Stained beech considerably cheapen’. Fine carving and cabriole legs add to value. Price of singles now into three figures, sets of any quality into four.
Papier mache is very collectable. Price of one of these can be equivalent to a set of six others of low quality.