Boy with Lace Collar (dummy board)
Dummy Board
ca. 1690-1700 (made)
ca. 1690-1700 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Dummy boards are life-size, flat, wooden figures painted and shaped in outline to resemble figures of servants, soldiers, children, and animals. The taste for using illusionistic painted figures as a form of house decoration probably originated in the trompe l’oeil, or life-like interior scenes painted by Dutch artists in the early 17th century. Dummy boards continued to be produced into the 19th century. They were placed in corners and on stairways to surprise visitors, or in front of empty fireplaces in the summer. Most were made by professional sign-painters, who also produced the hanging street signs prevalent until the late 18th century.
This late 17th-century example depicts a boy with a lace collar.
This late 17th-century example depicts a boy with a lace collar.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Boy with Lace Collar (dummy board) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on wood |
| Brief description | Dummy board, painted in oil on pine panel, with a boy with lace cravat, British, ca. 1690-1700 |
| Physical description | Life-size cut-out painted figure of a boy on wood. He is wearing a lace collar and cuffs, long coat and waistcoat, silk stockings and boots, with his left thumb hooked over his white waist-band, and carrying his hat in his right hand. The figure is made of three vertical boards of pine, the edges chamfered on the back. It is reinforced on the back with six chamfered battens of different sizes and a rudder support. The whole of the back of the figure is covered with tawny velvet. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by H. Blairman & Sons, Ltd. |
| Object history | Given by H. Blairman & Sons, Ltd. RF 184/1946 |
| Subject depicted | |
| Summary | Dummy boards are life-size, flat, wooden figures painted and shaped in outline to resemble figures of servants, soldiers, children, and animals. The taste for using illusionistic painted figures as a form of house decoration probably originated in the trompe l’oeil, or life-like interior scenes painted by Dutch artists in the early 17th century. Dummy boards continued to be produced into the 19th century. They were placed in corners and on stairways to surprise visitors, or in front of empty fireplaces in the summer. Most were made by professional sign-painters, who also produced the hanging street signs prevalent until the late 18th century. This late 17th-century example depicts a boy with a lace collar. |
| Bibliographic reference | Graham, Clare. Dummy Boards and Chimney Boards. Shire Album 214, Aylesbury: Shire Publications Ltd, 1988. 32 p., ill. ISBN 085263921X. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.3-1946 |
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| Record created | February 15, 2001 |
| Record URL |
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