A car from which shares are sold in the Netherlands during the share price boom of 1720. Etching, ca. 1720.

Date:
[1720?]
Reference:
811628i
Part of:
Groote tafereel der dwaasheid.
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About this work

Description

A car pulled by two monstrous reptiles is driven by a woman representing Deceit. At the front of the car sits Bombario holding a flag with his name and depicting a mousetrap; he also holds a bag of money, and has a tray of shares to sell. Behind him a devil stands blowing bellows into the backside of Harlequin (identified in the verses as John Law) who vomits papers with the names of Dutch investor towns (British Museum online catalogue). A crowd surrounds the car. Left, a townhouse inside which shares are being traded. Right foreground, a medicine vendor selling remedies for sickness and madness

Publication/Creation

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

Physical description

1 print : etching ; platemark 43.7 x 33.5 cm

Series

Contributors

Lettering

De kermis-kraam van de actie-knaapen, schaft vreugde en droefheid onder 't kaapen. Verklaaring op de print door Philadelphus. ... Verses in Dutch in four columns: Bedrog dat zich aan minnig toond, Schoon 's biezend slangen nest baarkroond ... O hemel dat ons land vooral Bevryd zy een vender val En de ed'le koopman schajp doch hier Herbloeye smeekt de Batavier.

Notes

'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.

References note

Frederik Muller, De nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, Amsterdam 1863, part 2, no. 3546 (11)
British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1954, no. 1650
Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949
Frans De Bruyn, 'Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid and the speculative bubble of 1720: a bibliographical enigma and an economic force', Eighteenth-century life, 2000, 24: 62-87, p. 65

Reference

Wellcome Collection 811628i

Creator/production credits

"Philadelphus" is identified as Gysbert Tysens

Type/Technique

Languages

Subjects

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

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