Designer Biography

John Henry Chamberlain

Born: 1831

Died: 1883

See items in our stock by John Henry Chamberlain

Chamberlain was articled to an architect named Goddard in his native Leicester, and after an abortive attempt to set up his own practice there he established himself in Birmingham, where he had well-to-do relatives. His Birmingham career was inaugurated with commissions from his family; a shop in Union Street for his uncle's firm of Eld & Chamberlain, and a house in Edgbaston for Mr Eld. He wrote essays on Ruskinian subjects, adopting and expanding his mentor's ideas. He remained an unswerving Ruskinian through out his career and became trustee of Ruskin's Guild of St George. His furniture exemplified the relationship of Gothic and nature, the surfaces being richly inlaid with leaves and flowers.