Dummy Boards and Chimney Boards
Clare Graham

Life-sized painted wooden cut-out figures of soldiers, serving maids, children and animals stand in dark corners of country houses, often creating a disturbingly lifelike impression for the casual viewer. Many strange theories have been put forward to account for these figures, now known as dummy boards or silent companions; were they intended to act as firescreens, or to scare off burglars, or even to ward off loneliness? This book disentangles their true origins and discusses the range of purposes to which they were put.

The history of the dummy board is often represented as a sad account of social and artistic decline. It is usually suggested that the earlist figures were the sophisticated creations of well known artists, designed to stand in great houses. Gruadually, they yielded to mass production and, as the eighteenth century wore on, became props for theatres, inns and pleasure gardens, gradually sinking to their current ignominious position of holding menus in front of restaurants.
page 6

Shire Publications Ltd., 1988, paperback, 32 pages, many b&w illustrations