Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chamberlaine, John
CHAMBERLAINE, JOHN (1745–1812), antiquary, succeeded Richard Dalton in February 1791 as keeper of the king's drawings and medals. He deserves recognition as having carried out his predeceseor's proposals and published: 1. ‘Imitations of Drawings, by Hans Holbein, in the Collection of His Majesty, for the Portraits of Illustrious Persons of the Court of Henry VIII. With Biographical Tracts,’ 2 vols. fol. London, 1792-1800 (another edition, with the engravings reduced, 4to, London, 1812). 2. ‘Original Designs of the most celebrated masters of Bolognese, Roman, Florentine, and Venetian Schools; comprising some of the Works of L. da Vinci, the Caracci, C. Lorrain, Raphael, Michael Angelo, the Poussins, and others in his Majesty's Collection,’ 2 parts, fol. London, 1812 (this is a reissue, with additions, of a work published in 1796-7). The plates for these line publications were executed, with few exceptions, by Bartolozzi and his pupil Tomkins. The letterpress accompanying the Holbein series was written with scrupulous care by Edmund Lodge. Chamberlaine died at Paddington Green on 12 Jan. 1812 (Gent. Mag. lxxxii. i. 92). He had been admitted to the Society of Antiquaries on 7 June 1792, and was for some years a member of the Society of Arts.
[European Mag. lxi. 78; Lowndes’s Bibliographer's Manual (ed. Bohn), i. 405; Reuss's Alphabetical Register of Living Authors, ii. 189; Ironsides's Hist. of Twickenham (Nichols's Bibl. Topog. Brit. vol. x. No. 6), p. 94.]