Female Street Player with Guitar
Dummy Board
ca.1780 (made)
ca.1780 (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 figure is one of a pair with a male street player with a barrel organ, and was probably made for a tea garden or inn.
This figure is one of a pair with a male street player with a barrel organ, and was probably made for a tea garden or inn.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Female Street Player with Guitar (popular title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on wood |
| Brief description | Dummy board, oil on wood panel, female street player with guitar, British, ca. 1780 |
| Physical description | Life-size cut-out figure painted on wood of a female street player singing, and playing a guitar. She is wearing a lace cap, and a floral printed dress with a plain apron over it. Some papers are hanging out of the pocket. Her dress reaches to mid-calf. The section of the left arm, between the elbow and the hand (and including the neck of the guitar), appears to be a later restoration. |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Object history | Purchased, 1938 On loan to Tewkesbury, 1968 (Registered file 68/821). |
| Historical context | Probably made for a tea garden or inn. |
| Production | Later dummy boards such as this one tend to have a 'harsher' outline compared to the softly chamfered edge seen on examples from the 17th century. |
| Subjects 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 figure is one of a pair with a male street player with a barrel organ, and was probably made for a tea garden or inn. |
| Associated object | CIRC.106-1938 (Set) |
| 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 | CIRC.107-1938 |
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| Record created | June 27, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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