Ruby Estelle Sandground, attended St John's Wood Art School in the 1920s where she studied life drawing, fashion design and oil painting. After gaining a diploma in fashion design she became a saleswoman at Harrods in order to gain experience of the consumer market. She started designing leather goods, specialising in handbags and gloves and took a course at Cordwainer’s Technical College in order to increase her practical knowledge of the leather trade. The exact sequence of these events in unknown, however in 1933 she was awarded two prizes at the competition for industrial design held by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce.

In an article (possibly produced by Cordwainer's Technical College in the late 1930s) it was noted that a recent increased demand for 'fancy goods’ had created better prospects for women to pursue industrial design as a career. The article also refers to Ruby Estelle Sandground as 'one of the most successful women designers...whose work in connection with leather goods is regarded with great respect by many manufacturers'.

This is one of 94 designs for leather gloves in the V&A’s collection by Ruby Estelle Sandground. These designs, for both day and evening wear, represent the work of a successful female commercial designer. The quality and variety of the designs vividly conveys the pressures of designing for the commercial market.

The National Art Library holds a manuscript notebook of lecture notes on fancy leather-goods taken by Ruby Estelle Sandground at Cordwainer’s College (MSL/2015/1).