My perusals of the online realm often lead to many an intriguing discovery in the way of material culture. In recent weeks, I've happened several times upon a particular sort of object of which I had no prior awareness: an oddity called a "dummy board". With my interest piqued, I endeavoured to do some independent searching to unearth more on these peculiar objects.
I found that these objects remain largely shrouded in mystery to antiques specialists and art historians alike. The dummy board, which made its first appearance in the early Seventeenth Century, may have served any number of practical purposes - if its purpose was even practical at all. There is suggestion that they may have been merely humourous, perhaps meant to aid in the playing of jokes. Still, the predominant theory posits that these flat life-sized silhouettes, executed in the trompe l'oeil style of painting and given bevelled edges to make them seem more lifelike, were employed by great houses as deterrents to intrusion and thievery. It's not a terribly farfetched proposal; in Georgian England, for instance, wealthy homeowners would often depart on sojourns to the continent to undertake a Grand Tour, or perhaps vacate their property for a stay at a medicinal spa. The placing of dummy boards within their home may have served as a safeguard against an attempted breaking and entering in their absence. It seems a bit comical to our modern sensibilities, but from a distance, such figures may very well have successfully thwarted thieveries.
And one recorded instance of the use of dummy boards attests to this: I found a rather amusing account of a gentleman from Lancaster who employed dozens of them in the guise of oversized armed soldiers and lined them along the colonnades of his residence. The deception must have been quite convincing, because a Yorkshireman from nearby was so alarmed at the sight that he dispatched his own militia to confront the guarding "soldiery". Sadly, each of the brave lads defending the house was lost in the ensuing gunfire.
Boards like the one above were sometimes placed outside taverns so as to encourage men to enlist. Dummy boards were not always so martial, however. Many extant examples take the guise of our four-footed companions as well as beasts more exotic (the latter were often kept by those in the upper echelons of society as creatures of intrigue). While I'm inclined to suspect that these in particular might have lent private spaces a homier aspect, like so many other items in grand homes, they primarily served to emphasize the status of their owners. Boards representing servants and gardeners were carefully placed across one's property for similar purpose. Rather whimsically, depictions of "sightseers" could even be found in the gazebos and follies which dotted a property's grounds, hearkening to the contemporary popularity among tourists of paying visits to grand houses.
There is also speculation that dummy boards were used by shopkeepers to advertise wares, which certainly seems plausible. One thoughtful suggestion posits that their presence helped to alleviate loneliness. This is especially touching when considering how a board depicting a dog or cat might have served as a reminder of a beloved pet, and even more bittersweet if one imagines a human likeness offering comfort to the grieving after loss. The frequency of dummy boards depicting children does prompt me to wonder if they comforted families in an era when infant and child mortality were so common. Whatever purpose dummy boards served in days past, their use eventually declined, and they largely fell out of fashion by the Nineteenth Century. Nevertheless, these mysterious objects continue to intrigue.
Bibliography
1. Edwards, Clive. “Dummy Board Figures as Images of Amusement and Deception in Interiors, 1660-1800.” Studies in the Decorative Arts, vol. 10, no. 1, 2002, pp. 74–97., doi:10.1086/studdecoarts.10.1.40662993.
2. Honey, Luke. “What Is a Dummy Board?” Homes and Antiques, 20 Dec. 2018, www.homesandantiques.com/antiques/collecting-guides-antiques/experts/what-is-a-dummy-board/.
3. Reif, Rita. “The Whimsical Dummy Board.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Feb. 1981, www.nytimes.com/1981/02/08/arts/antiques-the-whimsical-dummy-board.html.
