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 larger-than-life image of the biblical figure Aaron, and its pair representing Moses, were made in about 1708 to stand on the top of the reredos, or screen, of St Swithin's Church, London Stone (in Cannon Street). They were removed in 1857 and stored in the belfry. In 1938 someone with an office overlooking the church saw that they had been put in the street and saved them from destruction.