fumage

Definitions

1. Hearth tax.
   historical, uncountable
2. A surrealist art technique, devised by Wolfgang Paalen, in which impressions are made by the smoke of a candle or kerosene lamp on a piece of paper or canvas.
   uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“As early as the conquest mention⟳ is made in domesday book of fumage or fuage, vulgarly called smoke⟳ farthings; which were paid by custom to the king for every chimney in the house”

“A FUMAGE, or tax of smoke⟳ farthings, or hearth tax, a kind of tax usually to be found among the fiscal traditions of communities in remote times, ranges among those of the Anglo-Saxon period. Such a tax is mentioned subsequently in Domesday Book.”

“2013, Whitney Sherman, Playing with Sketches, The Quarto Group (Rockport Publishers), page 32, Fumage is not a frequently used drawing technique, but when used it can produce⟳ a subtle and mysterious effect. One notable twentieth-century fumage artist was banker Hugh Parker Guiler, spouse of diarist Anaïs Nin.”

CEFR level