Kenneth John Hewett was born in Ealing, West London. He first worked as a bookseller. After the war he bought a small shop in Richmond, South London, and soon after moved to Sydney Street off of King’s Road. He became a dealer in ethnographic art and antiquities, and started working with other dealers such as Sydney Bernard Burney (the first dealer to exhibit modern art alongside ‘tribal art’ in London between the wars), who gave him items to sell. He also dealt with Peter Wilson, chairman of Sotheby’s, and the dealer John Hunt. He and his wife were friends with the patrons and collectors Lisa & Robert Sainsbury.