Share-dealers and ruined speculators confronting each other in a crowded street during the share price boom of 1720. Etching after A. Humblot, ca. 1720.

  • Humblot, Antoine, -1758.
Date:
[1720?]
Reference:
3783i
Part of:
Groote tafereel der dwaasheid.
  • Pictures

About this work

Description

According to De Bruyn, the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam is shown as Rue Quinquempoix in Paris, the scene of speculative trading during the John Law scheme (De Bruyn, 'Het groote tafereel and the speculative bubble of 1720', p. 65). However it seems equally likely that trading in Rue Quinquempoix in Paris is shown as a model for trading in the Kalverstraat. Bombario, the personification of reckless speculation, allows his humped back to be used as a desk by the stock-jobbers (De Bruyn, 'Reading Het groote tafereel', p. 23). John Law looks out of a window (marked "Law", left). A lantern suspended above the street is labelled "Missisippi Lantaarn"; the lettering refers to it as a lantern without light. In the right background, a bank has a key as its street-sign, with the motto "Ik sluyt en onsluyt" (I lock and unlock). Above is the inscription "Hier sijn stroppen" (Here are straps, colloquial word for bad bargains). A dealer in the foreground says "Koop maar acties" (buy more shares).

Publication/Creation

A Paris (rue St Jacques) [i.e. the Netherlands?] : chez G. Duchange graveur du Roy [i.e. publisher unidentified?], [1720?]

Physical description

1 print : etching, with engraving ; platemark 33.5 x 36.2 cm

Lettering

Rue Quinquempoix en l'année 1720. De regte afbeelding der wind negotie gehouden in de straat van Quinquempoix tot Parys. A. Humblot inv.et scul. Verses in Dutch in three columns below the image: "Waar eertijds 't Grieks Atheen 'vermaard De man is doot: daar s'niet te goed.". They refer to the Missisippi wind and the South wind (the Law sheme and the South Sea Bubble respectively) which have already blown up in England and made the seeing blind and the hearing deaf

Creator/production credits

According to Muller, loc. cit., this is a Dutch copy published in the Netherlands after an engraving by A. Humblot published in Paris by Duchange; the French print lacks the Dutch verses

References note

Frederik Muller, De nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen. Beredeneerde beschrijving van nederlandsche historieplaten, zinneprenten en historische kaarten, Amsterdam 1863, part 2, p. 114, no. 3551(a) (16)
British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. 2, London 1954, no. 1655
Arthur H. Cole, The great mirror of folly (Het groote tafereel der dwaasheid). An economic-bibliographical study, Boston 1949, no. 16
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, pp. 23-24, p. 29, fig. 12
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 3783i

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.

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

  • Copy 1

    LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
  • Copy 0

    LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores

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