To further increase understanding of the text, the encyclopaedia was beautifully illustrated with over 4,000 images. Above: A page from the first edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia showing different sizes of illustration. It is these blocks which are now in the National Museums collection. Chambers's Encyclopaedia New Edition Chambers's Encyclopaedia was a great success -- but time does not stand still, and twenty years on, it was revised and updated by a new editor and published in ten volumes between 1888 and 1992 as Chambers's Encyclopaedia New Edition.