The English coffee house in Amsterdam: shares are traded during the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

The following is based on the British Museum online catalogue. Scaramouche (left) and Bombario in the form of Harlequin (right) hold back a curtain on either side to reveal the English coffee house in Amsterdam (nicknamed Quinquempoix after the location of the stock exchange in Paris), with shops selling shares wholesale ("Acties in 't gros") and cabbages ("Kool te koop", referring to the expresssion "kool verkopen", to sell a pup). Right, three men stand on a square pedestal formed of boxes of 'Engelse narre kappen' (English fools' caps), 'Fransche narre kappen (French fools' caps) and 'Duitsche narre kappen' (German/Dutch fools' caps); one man wearing spectacles is reading from a paper marked "Project", the other two pour coins through a funnel into the mouth of a man who squats in front of them, his breeches pulled down, who defecates papers representing speculative schemes which are grasped by a crowd below. In the mêlée two men scramble on the ground for share certificates and a paper lettered 'Viane' ; two others bare their backsides breaking wind labelled "Z[uid] Z[ee]" and "Miss[issippi]" as they bend to gather up coins.

In the right foreground, Mercury, imprisoned in a large birdcage, cries 'Ach! Verlost me' (Oh! release me) as a man pumps air into the cage with bellows; his captor (John Law?) kneels beside the cage gesturing towards dice, cards and conjuror's cups lying on the ground; a monkey sits in the centre with two bags of coins and a paper lettered 'Nul'

The heading "Arlequyn actionist" appears on a ribbon held by an owl, which is breaking wind, at the top of the print with, on either side, festoons comprising a bunch of carrots, a calf's head, two bottles, two parcels, fish and a horn, a mask, four tobacco pipes, another calf's head, a scythe, bagpipes, cheeses, two mice, two bladders and another mask

[Amsterdam] : [publisher not identified], [1720?]

1 print : etching ; platemark 23.6 x 19.1 cm

Arlequyn actionist. Some impressions have lettering "Uitlegginge der tytelplaat voor Arlequyn actionist." above the etching and six stanzas of five lines each in Dutch below

'Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid', Amsterdam, 1720, is a collection of literary and pictorial satires relating to the Dutch speculation bubble of 1720, which occurred simultaneously with the South Sea bubble and the Mississippi bubble involving John Law. This print is one of the many in that collection: see A.H. Cole, op. cit.

Frederik Muller, De nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, Amsterdam 1863, part 2, no. 3547 (12)

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1954, no. 1651

Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949, no. 12

Frans De Bruyn, 'Reading Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid: an emblem book of the folly of speculation in the bubble year 1720', Eighteenth-century life, 2000, 24: 1-42, p. 39, n. 31

Wellcome Collection 811729i