backcloth

From back +‎ cloth.

backcloth (plural backcloths)

1. The painted scenery at the back of a stage; the backdrop.
   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 203:

     Every day the coast looked the same, as though we had not moved; but we passed various places - trading places - with names like Gran’ Bassam, Little Popo, names that seemed to belong to some sordid farce acted in front of a sinister backcloth.

• clothback