At the request of John Law, Deception blinds the world, thus obscuring the disastrous consequences of Law's financial schemes. Etching by Pieter van den Berge, 1720.

The following is based on the British Museum online catalogue. John Law kneels before a reclining woman, identified as Deception, watched by a cupid standing nearby holding a bow. Above, two cupids shoot arrows at a big eye in order to blind the world. Below the cupids, smoke rises from censers against which rest quivers with more arrows; below are two lines of verse referring to Law

Around the central scene is a wreath with four cartouches. At the top, False Fortune gives bags of wind to four men who grovel at her feet. On the right, a man is seated on the ground with two men flying towards him, one blowing a horn. At the bottom, a naked figure draped with fish and wearing a mural crown rises from the sea, two ships in the background. On the left is an American Indian with a crocodile or alligator, representing the Mississippi Company. The wreath is decorated with a tobacco barrel and rolls, two bags from which smoke pours, a cross-staff, a mariner's compass, an artificial horizon, a globe, a pomegranate, papers, an artist's palette, a pair of scissors, rolls of fabric, books, a crate lettered, "N.S.", combs or paper crowns, and a bunch of root vegetables

Below, on the left, Mercury sits on a crate lettered, "NO. A55", and on the right Neptune rests beside a stream of water full of fish; between this pair is a smaller scene viewed between curtains drawn apart to reveal a man seated at a table counting coins

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

1 print : etching, with engraving ; image and lettering 36.3 x 22.5 cm ; platemark of inner scene 14.8 x 10 cm

Tytel print der aktie-kraam. Of voor-hof van Quinquenpoix. P.v.d. Berge in fec. De grote projecteur der koopmanschap van wind Smeekt hier de Schijnschoon die de wereld thans verblindt' Translation of lettering: "Title print of the share market. The great projector of the commerce in wind beseeches Deception who blinds the world". Below the image, Dutch verses engraved in two columns

'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. 3584 (49)

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1978, no. 1644

Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949, no. 49

Wellcome Collection 814387i