WHAT: With origins in Europe and fashionable in England during the 17th and 18th centuries, dummy boards were flat images of fashionably dressed people, painted on shape-cut wood. Here, dummy means fake. The idea was to make one-dimensional figures seem three-dimensional. Decorative men, women, children, soldiers, cats and dogs all were portrayed on boards.
Conventional wisdom has long been that when placed before a fireplace, dummy boards functioned as fire screens. But when you think about it, putting a decorative painted board in front of an open hearth wouldnβt be smart.
Not many boards survived to make it to America, and very few were made here; so intact original examples are rare. Clever ones are even rarer and more desirable.
A pair of English or Dutch boards featuring a well-dressed couple, each holding a spaniel, recently brought $4,062 in the auction of a high-end estate at Doyle New York.
MORE: Current thinking is that dummy boards were made to deceive. At a little over 3 feet tall, the sold pair could have been used in a shop to deter burglars or to advertise products. Others functioned as whimsies or βinstant companions.β
SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: Before electricity, the long shadows cast by dummy boards were much of their appeal.
HOT TIP: Dummy boards were mounted inches from walls, the better to create shadows.
