Short History of the Dummy Board or Silent Companion

These are flat paintings done on wood in the realistic style known as trompe l’oeil (literally, "deceiving the eye") or illusionistic style of painting popular in the 17th century, then cut and shaped in outline to fabricate the figure of a person, an animal or an inanimate object.

The earliest figures in existence, from the evidence of costume, date from the early part of the 17th century and resemble soldiers, servants, children and animals.

Although they have been associated almost exclusively with the fireplace, their exact use cannot be truly known. We know from some contemporary diaries, letters and accounts, however, that they were employed variously as pretend servants, summer fire screens and chimney boards, lantern and visiting card holders and simply as decorative jokes to fool the unwary guest!

Later in their history they became advertisements in front of shop premises, props for theatres and pleasure gardens and ornaments for inns and restaurants. They were so popular at one point that they were turned out on an almost mass-produced level by sign painters and itinerant interior decorators.

The heyday of the silent companion was in the late 17th early 18th century, when many of the figures around in museums and collections today were made. Dummy boards sometimes known as silent companions, are found in many forms: from infants to Indians, Archbishops to aristocrats, pigs to pork -pies, from musicians to maidservants and men at arms. The most common type found today are small pairs of children, girl and boy, which were 'mass produced' in the late 17th, early 18th century. All the best houses had them, but they fell out of favour a little in the 19th century. Although some were still made, they were not generally of quite the same quality as the earlier ones.

The originals are now very sought after and valuable collectors items, some reaching many thousands at auction.

Few references to these original figures appear in documents of the age, but there are stories of their being positioned in dark hallways to keep a wary eye on valuables left by wealthy guests. Waiting servants were less likely to purloin that silver-topped cane if they thought they were being watched by a member of the household staff lurking in a dark corner.

And how comforting to know, when you went away and left only a skeleton staff at your country mansion, that you had a few extra bodies stationed behind the window glass, looking out for would-be burglars!

One 1777 account mentions a figure of a British Grenadier in a house in Philadelphia, painted so lifelike that a gentleman fled the premises believing the British had arrived in force!

Dummy boards were painted mostly on pine, a few might be painted on hardwoods. The edges were bevelled from front to back to aid the illusion of three dimensions and they were made on one plank or on several tongue and grooved boards with a primer to smooth the joins. Their use in hallways and staircases and especially in front of the fireplace in summer, led to the belief that they may have originally been made as fire screens. Made of wood painted in oils and varnished, they would never have been effective in screening the folk sitting at the fireside from the blaze. They were far too tall and thin and when they were first produced were far too expensive an item to go up in smoke! Many are very finely painted indeed and would have been portraits of the wealthy and their children, much in the manner of the framed portrait for the wall and costing just as much. Sadly, very few are signed or dated and the identities of the people depicted on them remain a mystery. Maybe we will never really know what the original makers intended them for, but if you would like to know more about this fascinating form of folk art then....

This Quiet Life

NOW AVAILABLE: A preview of Susanne's forthcoming book " This Quiet Life" - a detailed history and examination of figurative dummy boards.

View "This Quiet Life"

Historic Houses with Dummy Boards

Many historic houses in the UK have antique boards. Here are just a few of them:

Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire; Castle Drogo in Devon; Chirk Castle in Clwyd; Knole in Kent; Snowshill Manor near Broadway, Gloucestershire and Dyrham Park near Bath in Gloucestershire; Wilberforce House on Humberside Sudeley Castle Gloucestershire, home to the very early 'Half -a -Lady' and the Sudeley Girl Castle Museum Norwich in Norfolk Lullingstone Castle in Kent, the home of the' Lullingstone Sweeper' and of course the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

There is only one readily available modern book on the subject ( as yet ) and the illustrations are all in black and white but an interested person could do no better than read the very small pamphlet by Clare Graham from Shire Publications. ISBN 085263 921 X. Alternatively please read 'This Quiet Life' mentioned above.

We would be very pleased to hear from anyone who knows of a figure in a collection open to the public, here, in the USA or elsewhere.