Fireboard

PeriodEarly 19th century

MediumWallpaper panel glued to a pine strainer frame

Dimensions32 × 38 × 1.75 in. (81.3 × 96.5 × 4.4 cm)

ClassificationsFireplace T&E

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Henry M. Post, Mrs. Lewis Waring, and Mr. Amory L. Haskell, in memory of their mother Mrs. J. Amory Haskell, 1944

Object number1962

DescriptionA rectangular fire board, comprised of a wallpaper panel glued to a simple pine strainer frame. The wallpaper panel is block printed on heavy paper, depicting a romanticized farmhouse bordered by stylized red, pink, and yellow flowers. The pine frame support is fastened at each corner by simple lap joints fastened with glue and short brads.
Curatorial RemarksFireboards, also known as chimney boards, were a popular household decorative item used to disguise a bare hearth during the warm months. These boards were popular from the late 18th century into the first decades of the 19th century. Itinerant artisans often painted fireboards with stencils, landscape scenes, or floral images for their patrons. One style of fireboard used wallpaper panels printed in England or France and imported to America. These colorful panels, advertised as "chimney board papers," would be glued to canvas or linen backings, then tacked or glued onto a wooden frame made to fit the fireplace opening. Consumers who could not perhaps afford an entire wallpapered room could purchase such a panel, adding elegance and taste to parlors, bedrooms, and dining rooms. By the 1830s, cast iron stoves replaced the earlier open fires, making fireboards obsolete.

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