It also eschewed the bulky format that and "found it necessary to disregard all common idea as to what constitutes dignity in the externals of books".

[12] The publishers found it necessary, however, to supplement the core text with a significant amount of additional material,[1] including more than 4000 illustrations not present in Brockhaus.

[1] The work appeared between 1859 and 1868 in 520 weekly parts at three-halfpence each[14] and totalled ten octavo volumes, with 8,320 pages, and over 27,000 articles from over 100 authors.

The articles were generally considered excellent, especially on Jewish literature, folk-lore, and practical science.

In this edition, the majority of the articles were rewritten and the articles on American matters were written mainly by Americans and an edition published there by Messrs. Lippincott of Philadelphia so that Lippincott and Chambers could claim relevant copyright in their respective countries.

[21] In 1944 the licence to Chambers's Encyclopaedia was acquired by George Newnes, Ltd., which had been publishing one-volume reference works for about a decade.

[12] Managing editor Margret D. Law called it a completely new work with an historic name and noted in the preface that the encyclopaedia "...is primarily a British production and therefore no doubt reflects to some extent the intellectual atmosphere of post-war Britain.

This implies belief in international co-operation rather than nationalistic isolationism, and in freedom of speech, and worship, information and association rather than in any totalitarian conception".

[14] The publication was celebrated at a luncheon at Grocers' Hall attended by over one hundred contributors and chaired by Sir Frank Newnes.

Lord Jowitt, the Lord Chancellor, gave the toast and described the endeavour as "outstanding proof" of British scholarship, while Mrs Law commented that she believed the work to be the first major encyclopaedia to be published in Britain since before the First World War.

[14] The encyclopaedia was regarded as such a scholarly achievement that Mrs Law was made an OBE for her efforts.

[23] Unlike other encyclopedias of the time, Chambers's Encyclopaedia forwent annual revision and attempted to publish new editions at roughly five-year intervals.