Originally intending to be a portrait painter, Edith Linnell successfully experimented with jewellery making and metalwork design in the early 20th century; her works receiving a medal and were purchased by the Board of Education for permanent display in the Victoria & Albert museum, London. Following the Arts & Crafts tradition, her designs were naturalistic in style based on her years of study as an artist when she drew from nature. Her extensive travels throughout the world provided the perfect opportunity to source gemstones for her designs. Originally based in the Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, Linnell later established premises at 184 Sloane Street; exhibited at the Arlington Gallery, 22 Old Bond Street and had showcases in Harrods and on RMS Queen Mary. Linnell also displayed her work at the last exhibition of the Arts & Crafts Society in London and St. Louis, the Baillie Gallery, London, The Albert Hall, London and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. The advent of the second world war saw the end of her business when her Sloane Street premises were destroyed by a bomb during the blitz.