Kenton & Co. was created by Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942), Mervyn Macartney, William R. Lethaby (1857-1931) and Ernest Gimson (1864-1919), all of whom had exhibited at the 1891 Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society exhibition.

From the little surviving evidence, it appears that Kenton & Co. held only two exhibitions of its work before being wound up in 1892. The company was formed ‘ with the object of supplying furniture of good design and the best workmanship; all the work is designed by members of the company and made under their personal guidance by their own workmen; and each piece is made entirely by one man and stamped with the initials of the designer and workman.' (The Builder, loc. cit.) noted: 'Mr Macartney's "Lady's writing table" (27), notable alike for elegance of line and solid workmanship’.

The desk was also praised as ’exquisite in every respect’ by Furniture and Decoration, 1 January 1892, p.9 (see Collard, op. cit., p.32). Photographs in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum show the desk as part of the Kenton & Co. exhibit, and on its own (Collard, op. cit., Figs. 3 and 4).

A version of this desk, with silver mounts, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.