Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hall, Chambers
HALL, CHAMBERS (1786–1855), collector of drawings, bronzes, and other works of art, was born in 1786. He lived at Elmfield Lodge, Southampton, and died on 29 Aug. 1855 in Bury Street, St. James's, London. In 1855, a few months before his death, he presented to the British Museum (Brit. Mus. Guide to Exhibition Galleries) sixty-six drawings by Thomas Girtin [q. v.], and various antiquities including bronzes. To the university of Oxford he gave at the same time the rest of his collections, including drawings by Raphael, a portrait of Mrs. Bradyll by Sir J. Reynolds, a portrait of Thornhill and sketches by Hogarth, a painting from Herculaneum, bronzes, &c. He also left to the university a portrait of himself by Linnell, which is said to lack Hall's usual benevolence of expression.
[Gent. Mag. 1855 pt.ii. 548-9, 1856 pt. i. 162 (from the Athenaeum); Michaelis's Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, pp. 175, 571.]