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Lot Essay
John Abdy Repton noted in the Gentleman's Magazine, November 1845 (p. 590) 'a painting...cut out of a board'. Such wooden templates 'large as life' have also been known since the 19th century as 'picture board dummies'.
Dummy-boards had a variety of purposes, but primarily they were used as whimsical decoration in private houses, providing entertainment by deceiving unwary guests. They were also used to disguise empty fireplaces in the summer. A group of three boards depicting children at Pallant House, have a history that can be traced back to the 18th Century (C. Graham, Dummy Boards and Chimney Boards, Aylesbury, 1988, p. 20). Another pair of figures in seventeenth century dress standing before the drawing room chimneypiece at Stockton House, Wiltshire is illustrated in C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1908, vol.I, p.119.
Dummy-boards had a variety of purposes, but primarily they were used as whimsical decoration in private houses, providing entertainment by deceiving unwary guests. They were also used to disguise empty fireplaces in the summer. A group of three boards depicting children at Pallant House, have a history that can be traced back to the 18th Century (C. Graham, Dummy Boards and Chimney Boards, Aylesbury, 1988, p. 20). Another pair of figures in seventeenth century dress standing before the drawing room chimneypiece at Stockton House, Wiltshire is illustrated in C. Latham, In English Homes, London, 1908, vol.I, p.119.