Balli was a collector. He may have worked for the Imperial Mercantile Credit Association and Metropolitan Provincial Bank, whose Director was Xenophon Balli (1814-1877).
He was, with a number of Whistler's other patrons, a member of the Greek Orthodox Church in London. He was a witness at the marriage of Alexander Constantine Ionides in 1887.
In 1891 he was aged 42 and with his Turkish wife Helen was living at 50 Holland Park.
He was a collector and patron of Whistler (he owned Gold and Orange: The Neighbours y423). His collection was sold at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris on 22 May 1913.
The London Banks, Credit, Discount and Finance Companies, London, December 1865, p. 57; Constantinides, Michael, The Greek Orthodox Church in London, Oxford, 1933.