Rare Paint-Decorated Fireboard

New England, early 19th c.

Pine, Polychrome paint

Over-all in excellent condition, minor losses and surface abrasions to paint (bottom portion). Mounted to a trestle-foot stand.

Provenance: Estate of Mina Curtiss, Weston, Connecticut; The Collection of Marth Hamilton.

This Fireboard, depicting a Trompe l’oeil perspective of a vase of flowers in a brick-lined fireplace bordered by green, blue, and white foliate tiles, is part of a known group of fireboards.

For similar examples see American Decorative Wall Painting by Nina Fletcher Little, p. 74, and Little by Little: Six Decades of Collecting American Decorative Arts by Nina Fletcher Little, p. 97, fig. 130. Little notes the artist’s “unmistakable style” has been recognized in several other New England Fireboards. 

This depiction of a vase of flowers in a fireplace is indiciative of the early American practice of displaying flower bouquets in fireplaces during warmer months when they were not in use. The intent was more than decorative, the flowers would attract flies and deter them from landing on expensive looking glasses and other fine furnishings. 

27 ¾” h. x 38” w.