concept

Peking, Pechili province, China: a magic lantern show. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

A Chinese magic lantern show. Coloured stippled engraving by J. Dadley after Pu-Qua.

A man with a magic lantern (slide projector) on his back is walking along a country path. Lithograph by Gavarni, 1854.

An itinerant young man is presenting a "boîte à curiosité" or magic lantern show to children and adults who are gathering around to look. Engraving by Noel Le Mire, 1752, after R. Brakenburg.

A man is projecting on to a sheet the images of a magic lantern to three children. Etching by J. Ouvrier after J.E. Schenau, 17--.

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 following is based on the British Museum online catalogue and on de Bruyn, loc. cit. A street scene in Amsterdam. In the right background, people trading shares in the English coffee house (nicknaamed Quinquenpoix after the Paris stock-exchange in the rue Quinquenpoix). From the coffee house a large crowd of people surround and push a cart with Fortuna, the cart pulled by six allegorical figures representing various investment schemes. In front of the cart are mushrooms representing the towns which invested in the schemes. Above, the devil blows soap bubbles over Fortuna. On the left is the destination of the cart: labelled gateways to three asylums of Amsterdam (the sickhouse, the madhouse and the poorhouse). Fame flies off to the left. Bottom centre, a Janus head showing two faces of investment. Among the crowd on the left is a man with a magic lantern
"The interior of the coffee house ... is realistically portrayed, right down to the two municipal edicts affixed to the doorposts"--De Bruyn, loc. cit.

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark 27.8 x 37.2 cm

A chariot driven by Folly and pulled by speculative trading companies displays a figure of Fortune corrupting honest trade. Etching by B. Picart, ca. 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.

A mother and child looking into a large box mounted on a light timber frame in the street. An attendant looks on beside the box. The children are looking at a peep show, a form of amusement very popular before television. The operator standing on the right could move the slats of painted glass that are visible from the side of the box, so providing the illusion of human figures or animals passing through a landscape. Magic lantern shows were a novelty in China in the late 1860s. The lantern was considered 'truly ingenious beyond belief', and it soon attracted a mass popular audience. People in China who had never travelled could learn about foreign places through the slide show, discovering the world beyond the confines of their home village or region. Often a showman delivered a running commentary on the mysterious scenes as he introduces them; sometimes there was even music accompaniment. To attract customers, many presenters also included a few images of naked women in the middle or at the end of a show

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion ; glass 10 x 10.3 cm

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Magic lantern shows

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.

A chariot driven by Folly and pulled by speculative trading companies displays a figure of Fortune corrupting honest trade. Etching by B. Picart, ca. 1720.

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

Peking, Pechili province, China: a magic lantern show. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Wellcome uses cookies.

Magic lantern shows

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.

A chariot driven by Folly and pulled by speculative trading companies displays a figure of Fortune corrupting honest trade. Etching by B. Picart, ca. 1720.

Children watching a magic lantern show. Coloured lithograph.

Peking, Pechili province, China: a magic lantern show. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

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