John Law as Don Quixote with Bombario as Sancho Panza. Etching, ca. 1720.

John Law was a Scottish financier whose reforms in France led to a financial bubble which burst in 1720. The following is based on the British Museum online catalogue. Law is mounted on a braying ass hung about with bags of money and a chest labelled "Bombarioos geldkist 1720" (Bombario's money chest 1720); he holds a flag labelled, "Ik koom ik koom Dulcinia" in reference to the lady Dulcinea in Don Quixote. On the left a devil squirts a clysterpipe into the mouth of the donkey which is dragged by chains from a metal collar, towards the Quinquenpoix coffee-house (where Law was based in Paris) whose keeper is Dulcinea; the crowd includes a Jew, a sailor and working men as well as merchants. Behind Law sits a devil who holds up the ass's tail while it defecates share-certificates and paper money which a mixed crowd runs forward to grab. Another devil wearing a fool's cap and carrying a scourge hovers above. Beside the ass, Bombario as Sancho Panza, wearing a robe decorated with fish-hooks and with a quill behind his ear, is perched on a large toad or frog; he hands a bag of money to Law. In the foreground, to left, a group of objects connected with worthwhile trade have been kicked aside: the caduceus of Mercury, ledgers, a portable desk, coins, papers, a bale, barrel and roll of tobacco. In the background, ships sail on the South Sea