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 rare 20th-century example was painted especially for a display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1977–78 entitled It's not really there, it's painted. Trompe l'oeil: an artist at work, in which the designer John Ronayne gave trompe l’oeil painting demonstrations. The figure is a portrait of one of the security staff, wearing the V&A warder's uniform at the time: white shirt, grey jacket, navy blue trousers, and black cap.