Dummy boards, silent companions were life-size paintings on flat wood panels, made from the 17th through the 19th century. They were placed in corners and on stairways to surprise visitors, or in front of empty fireplaces in the summer.http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O136641/dummy-board-aaron/https://daily.jstor.org/dummy-boards-the-fun-figures-of-the-1600s/https://www.soane.org/exhibitions/fanciful-figures/dummy-boardsTara Hamling & Catherine Richardson, A Day at Home in Early Modern England: Material Culture and Domestic Life, 1500-1700 (Yale, 2017), pp. 227–228.
Links
Exploring the history of dummy boards // National Trust
See also Standee Photo stand-in Fireboard Staffage
References