Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Spooner, Charles (d.1767)
SPOONER, CHARLES (d. 1767), mezzotint engraver, was born in co. Wexford, and became a pupil of John Brooks [q. v.] In Dublin he executed portraits of William Hogarth (1749), Anthony Malone, Samuel Madden (1752), and Thomas Prior (1752), all of which are extremely scarce. He came to London before 1756, and engraved some good portraits, two or three of which were from his own drawings; as well as genre subjects after Rembrandt, Teniers, Schalken, Mercier, and others. But he found his chief employment in making skilful copies of plates by other engravers for Sayer and Bowles, the printsellers. Spooner died in London on 5 Dec. 1767, his life being shortened by intemperance, and was buried beside his friend, James Macardell [q. v.], in Hampstead churchyard.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; J. Chaloner Smith's British Mezzotinto Portraits; Dodd's manuscript Hist. of Engravers in Brit. Mus. (Addit. MS. 33405).]