Furnishing fabric

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

Furnishing fabric · France · ca. 1928. Jacquard-woven with a rayon weft on a cotton warp. By Betty Joel Ltd. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.