Betty and David Joel founded Betty Joel Ltd. in 1921. The firm manufactured high-quality furniture in Portsmouth, and supplied it to fashionable clients through a showroom in London. As the main designer for the firm, Betty Joel's position was unusual: the furniture industry in this period was dominated by men. Her designs were inspired by the most up-to-date styles on the Continent, but lacked the stark austerity of cutting-edge Modernism. Nevertheless, many contemporaries found them highly original. In 1925 the writer John Gloag enthused, 'Betty Joe ... is developing furniture design in a manner entirely different from the other branches of twentieth-century work'.

Betty Joel also sourced furnishings by other designers which fitted in with her distinctive look. She frequently travelled abroad, actively to seek out interesting work. This furnishing fabric was designed and manufactured in France around 1928. It is woven from cotton and rayon, a lustrous artificial fibre. Many continental designers at this time were rejecting traditional, representational patterns in favour of abstract, geometric ones. The designer of this textile, whose name is not known, used quadrants, semi-circles and rectangles in muted tones to create a modern fabric with wide appeal.