Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and became a leading architect and designer of the Glasgow School. This cabinet was commissioned by Wenman J. Bassett-Lowke, a manufacturer of scale models, who employed Mackintosh to renovate, extend and furnish his home, 78 Derngate, Northampton, in 1916. Mackintosh transformed the small mid-terrace house, designing furniture and furnishings for a series of dramatic interior spaces.

The angular form and bold inlays of this cabinet encapsulate the style that Mackintosh developed at Derngate, anticipating many of the design elements which became fashionable in Europe in the 1920s. It was designed for the hall, which Mackintosh enlarged, introducing a daring black colour scheme contrasted with triangular motifs, predominantly yellow, in the stained-glass panels and stencilled frieze. Like the other hall furniture, this diminutive cabinet was painted black; additionally, its surface was inlaid with bold yellow plastic triangles and lozenges to complement the décor.

Mackintosh was one of the first furniture designers to experiment with the use of plastic, a relatively new material, as an inlay. He had already used casein plastic inlays, probably German-made Galalith, in the Chinese Room at the Ingram Street Tea Rooms, Glasgow, in 1911. Bassett-Lowke, one of the founders of the Design and Industries Association in 1915, appears to have introduced Mackintosh to Erinoid, another casein plastic. Erinoid had been manufactured in England since 1914 and Mackintosh chose it for this piece.