placesandpalaces:fashionsfromhistory:Girl & Boy Dummy BoardsEarly 18th CenturyEnglish Dummy boar

placesandpalaces:fashionsfromhistory:Girl & Boy Dummy BoardsEarly 18th CenturyEnglish 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. (Victoria and Albert)MFA Boston “ They were placed in corners and on stairways to surprise visitors “So in other words, just like the (almost) life-sized cardboard cutout of The Rock we had in my dorm sophomore year that people kept putting in creepy places. Gotcha. -- source link
Tumblr Blog : fashionsfromhistory.tumblr.com

More pics about