The Arts and Crafts movement emerged in Britain in the second half of the 19th century. Reacting against increasingly industrialised design and production, its proponents placed a renewed focus on materials and craft. Education was central to the Arts and Crafts vision for a better society, with schools, evening classes and apprenticeships enabling working-class people to improve their practical skills. In a society where women were often disadvantaged, Arts and Crafts activities allowed many to learn skills they had previously been denied. Barred from trades and the apprenticeships required to learn them, women were now able to learn a craft within the newly established arts institutes, affording them the expressive freedom and enjoyment of creative pursuits outside the home. Furthermore, craft skills provided the elusive opportunity to gain financial independence and achieve accomplishments under their own names.

Ida Britten and Rita Redpath were students at one such arts institute: the School of Art Wood-Carving (now part of the Royal College of Art), established in London in 1878. The school was the first public institution dedicated to training male and female craftworkers, with both male and female teachers working under the supervision of head carver Eleanor T. Rowe. According to the journal The Lady's Realm, the designs for these panels were adapted by Eleanor Rowe, whilst Britten and Redpath completed the carving. The panels were subsequently exhibited in the Woman's Work section of the Victorian Era Exhibition, held in London in 1897. In 1901, Britten worked again with her teacher Rowe and two other students (Miss Kathleen Smith and Maria E. Reeks) carving a chair for the young Princess Victoria; the design was adapted from a sixteenth-century French chair within the V&A's collection, with a central panel designed by Walter Crane.