[Ger.: a pseudo-Fr. formation after G. staffren to fit out, garnish, believed to be corruptly ad. OF. estoffer, f. estoffe STUFF sb.] The accessories of a picture. Also transf. and fig.
1872. B. Taylor, in Life & Lett. (1884), II. 594. A forge where he [Schiller] studied the staffage for his ballad of ‘Fridolin.’
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 Nov., 3/1. The staffage to the little love-story is a fertile little oasis in the wide, bleak Cossack steppes.
1906. Academy, 10 Nov., 480/1. But the seated figure is a needless piece of staffage.
1908. A. M. Hind, Short Hist. Engraving & Etching, 230. The staffage of some of Piranesi’s dullest subjects … discloses an irrepressible instinct for life.
