What is a balloon back chair?

It's a dining or side chair with a rounded, waisted open back. The shape appears on 452 titles, which makes it the only back pattern common enough to count as a type of its own. Mahogany is the usual timber, and walnut examples turn up as well.

How large do Victorian dining sets get?

Fours and sixes are the common sizes, with pairs and singles running below them. Eights, tens and twelves appear regularly. The largest single lot recorded on Sellingantiques is a set of 22 oak chairs, which also sits at the top of the range.

Which timbers were used?

Mahogany leads by a wide margin at 1,637 titles, followed by walnut, oak, elm, rosewood, ash and beech. Elm, ash and beech belong to the country and Windsor chairs. Yew is the rarest timber that recurs, almost always on Windsor armchairs.

Are all chairs labelled Victorian actually Victorian?

The dated field runs from 1700 to 1960 across the 2,394 listings that carry a clean year, so a handful of pieces fall well outside the reign, with samples given as 1800, 1920, 1930 and 1940. Dealers also apply the label to chairs dated c.1840 and c.1900. It works as shorthand for a style and a broad period rather than a fixed span.

What unusual forms turn up in this category?

One-offs surface now and then: a sedan armchair, a cock fighting chair, a metamorphic library chair that opens into steps, a lambing chair, a Burmese padouk harpist's chair and a rise-and-fall music chair each appear once. Iron shows up too, in iron-framed button back armchairs, a steel and leather rocker and cast iron garden chairs.

How many come up for sale each year?

Around 672 a year, listed by 356 different dealers over time. That makes Victorian chairs one of the most widely stocked things on Sellingantiques. Roughly a third of listings are multiples rather than single chairs.

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Antique Victorian Chairs

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Victorian chairs are the seat furniture of 19th-century British homes: dining sets, upholstered armchairs, hall and desk chairs, made in quantity for houses that were multiplying.