concept

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

An optical experiment using a giant lens to reflect sun-rays to create fire - with various optical instruments scattered and fountains in a Baroque setting. Line engraving by C.N. Cochin after J. de La Jouë.

A lecturer (William Kitchiner?) about to address a lecture on optics with the aid of candles, a telescope and magic lantern to a seated audience, he is interrupted by a Kentish hop merchant. Coloured etching, 1809, after G.M. Woodward.

The central image shows men trading shares in the English coffee house in Amsterdam (nicknamed Quinquenpoix after the location of the stock exchange in Paris). On the left, a woman refuses a waiter who asks for coffee from her large pot; in the foreground, a woman sits on a bench selling gingerbread-nuts from a large pot, a man offers eggs for sale, saying "better than shares"; a Savoyard boy carries a magic-lantern on his back, a sailor offers English red herrings from two baskets, and three men sit at a table; beyond, stock-brokers and investors flock into the room
Four vignettes in the corners of the print depict the rise and fall of the shareholders. Top left, 'The heyday of the shareholders' (men crowd outside a house congratulating themselves on their profits from share dealing); bottom left, 'The fall of the shareholders' (men bemoan their losses, one falling from the top of a ladder which another begins to climb); top right, 'The exodus of the shareholders' (investors and their families embark on a ship to sail for the East Indies and a Dutch sailor wishes them well); bottom right 'The return of clean business' (Minerva works at her loom, as worthwhile industry returns to the Netherlands).

Groote tafereel der dwaasheid.

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark 27.7 cm x 35.2 cm

The English coffee house in Amsterdam, with people trading shares; with vignettes showing the rise and fall of the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

In the foreground a tree, on the left side of which the stadhouder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, grants shelter under his cloak to three naked men representing destitute former shareholders, while on the right side a boy defecates on the head of a man buried up to his neck surrounded by share certificates. Beyond is a pool in which Bombario (so identified in the verses) with a magic lantern, and another man flounder; on the far bank, dealers use share certificates as bait to catch victims while another dealer has a fishing net
In the left background is a bakery inside which the baker is kneading dough: the verses below indicates that he is cooking, or falsifying, shares. Centre background, John Law (identified by the legend "Law") in front of a church, has dismounted from his horse to offer a bag of money to two people, who refuse it
In the right background is a fairground wheel, the 'Malle molen' (Fool's mill, a mill in The Hague), on which four investors ride; above the wheel, the clouds part to reveal the sun in the sign of Pisces shown as two fish. Next to the wheel is the legend "De malle molens zyn afgeschaft, En veel met vallende ziekte gestraft" ("The fools mill has been abolished, And many punished with the falling sickness [epilepsy]"). Right foreground, a Jewish money-lender, on a donkey with a large sack of coins in front of him, hands a money bag to a pedlar of spectacles. Bottom right, a man identified in the verses as a miser, wearing a fur coat and hat, laments the losses he has suffered on his shares, while his woman servant tots up her wealth on her fingers to taunt him

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark 25.8 x 32.7 cm

Investors optimistically seek the protection of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, in the Dutch financial crisis of 1720, while others are irreversably ruined. Etching, 1720.

The transparency reveals the magic lantern's image: a coloured man dancing to the devil's tune, played on a violin of bellows and tongs

Spooner's protean views

1 print : lithograph on thin paper with tissue mounted behind, with watercolour ; image 17.5 x 13.1 cm.

Dialogue includes: " Ladies & gentlemen - I have the honour for the first time in this county of Kent to deliver a lecture on optics" ; "I humbly ax pardon Sir - but before you proceed furder I rises with all due difference to inform you as how in this here country we do not call them hop sticks but hop poles" ; also text on the telescope, 'Spear & Clark College Green' ; text on dog's collar, 'Hop mer' ; and text in merchant's pocket, 'Tretise on Hops'. The optical instrument makers Richard Spear and Edward Clarke were in partnership at College Green, Dublin, from 1815 to 1817: their names have been added to the print in this Irish copy of an earlier etching published in London by Thomas Tegg

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 23.9 x 33.5 cm

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The English coffee house in Amsterdam, with people trading shares; with vignettes showing the rise and fall of the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

Investors optimistically seek the protection of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, in the Dutch financial crisis of 1720, while others are irreversably ruined. Etching, 1720.

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

An optical experiment using a giant lens to reflect sun-rays to create fire - with various optical instruments scattered and fountains in a Baroque setting. Line engraving by C.N. Cochin after J. de La Jouë.

A lecturer (William Kitchiner?) about to address a lecture on optics with the aid of candles, a telescope and magic lantern to a seated audience, he is interrupted by a Kentish hop merchant. Coloured etching, 1809, after G.M. Woodward.

Wellcome uses cookies.

Projectors

Images

Catalogue

The English coffee house in Amsterdam, with people trading shares; with vignettes showing the rise and fall of the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

Investors optimistically seek the protection of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, in the Dutch financial crisis of 1720, while others are irreversably ruined. Etching, 1720.

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

An optical experiment using a giant lens to reflect sun-rays to create fire - with various optical instruments scattered and fountains in a Baroque setting. Line engraving by C.N. Cochin after J. de La Jouë.

A lecturer (William Kitchiner?) about to address a lecture on optics with the aid of candles, a telescope and magic lantern to a seated audience, he is interrupted by a Kentish hop merchant. Coloured etching, 1809, after G.M. Woodward.

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