A satirical new year's gift representing the spoiling of the year by speculation in the Dutch financial crisis of 1720-1721. Etching, 1720.

The following is based on the British Museum online catalogue. In the centre, a nymph (Pecunia) and a satyr embrace underneath a palm tree. On the left clouds and wind, on the right coins dropping from the sky, in the foreground, a dish of horse droppings wrapped in gold foil (according to the verse description), a mariner's compass lettered "West" and "Zuid" and papers referring ominously to the financial situation in the coming year

Around the central scene is a border of strapwork peopled by figures invented by Jacques Callot. The subjects in the border refer to winter. At the top a civet-cat peers over a cartouche, on either side is draped the cloak of covered with foolscap bells: the cloak is inscribed "Narren schanddeck voor verkleumde windhandelaars" (Fool's cloak for chilly wind-dealers). On the left hangs a pair of skates and on the right a pair of fur mittens. Below, on the left a young dwarf wearing a fur cap looks out of a window raising his hand to throw a snowball, and on the right, a dwarf looks out of a window blowing his fingers to warm them. Below on the left is a large fan of feathers and on the right a horse-collar (?) decorated with two eagles' heads. Bottom centre, a dwarf wearing a fur cap sits on a sledge propelling himself with a stick, beside him, to left, lies a bundle of firewood and an axe with a tree in leaf, and to right, a spade and pick-axe with a leafless tree

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

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark of inner scene 11.4 x 8.4 cm ; platemark of border 29.8 x 18.8 cm

Nieuw-jaars geschenk. Nooit niew jaar zo vol gevaar. Met narren paarde muskus geparfumeerd opgedraagen aan de geld-godin Pecunia door de actie-prins of Viceroy van Plutus, in zyn niewe schuilhoek zyn wanhebbelyke liefde koesterende ... Lauw maands herdenking, wegens de nieuwbakke goude eeuw, vertoverd in paarde vygen ... Literal translation of lettering: "New year's gift--never was a new year so full of danger--perfumed with fools' musk of horses and dedicated to the money goddess Pecunia by the share-prince or viceroy of Plutus fostering his unsuitable love in a new hiding place ... Commemoration of January magically transformed by the newly baked golden age into horse figs". Within the border, Dutch verses engraved in four columns, and other engraved inscriptions

Frederik Muller, De nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, Amsterdam 1863, part 2, no. 3589 (54)

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1978, no. 1679

Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949, no. 54

Wellcome Collection 814509i

'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.