[TAFEREEL DER DWAASHEID]. LAW, John (subject).
Het groot tafereel der dwaasheid ...
[Amsterdam], 1720. Folio. With the title page printed in red and black, 78 mostly double-page or folding engraved plates with caricatures on the 1720 Bubble, and a double-page hand-coloured plate of the foundations of a house near Leiden loosely inserted in the back. Contemporary gold-tooled half blueish green roan, with a red morocco title label lettered in gold on the spine, blue paste paper sides. [1], [1 blank], 25, [1], 52, "31" [= 29], [1 blank], 8, 9, [1 blank] pp. and engraved ll.
€ 4,500
A famous collection of texts and plates satirising the Englishman John Law, his Mississippi Company, and the international land and trading speculation in worthless shares of the South Sea Bubble of 1719-1720, which resulted in an international scandal. The speculation began in Paris, London and Hamburg, spreading to the Netherlands in the summer of 1720. While plays satirizing the speculation already opened in September 1720, the bubble really burst in October. Pieter Langendijk and Gysbert Tysens have been identified as authors of some of the plays. The book also provides the texts of official documents relating to the Dutch trading companies involved.
In The great mirror of Folly, Cole presents lists of plates which can be found in various copies, the total of which, however, is never found in a single copy. The present copy contains no. 22 with a German title and no. 65, the famous playing cards, in the later "Pasquin" version. Rare prints that are seldom present are no. 73, the magic cards, and supplement nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6. The interest and importance of the collection is hardly to be exaggerated. It presents a unique source on one of the most interesting periods in economic history, commenting on the feverish activity of speculation accompanying the introduction of the stock market, not only in the Netherlands itself but also in France and England, including the activities of John Law, the Mississippi Bubble in France, and the South Sea Bubble in England. The prints also include a map of the American State of Louisiana, near the Mississippi River.
With the bookplate of B. Eveleigh Winthrop mounted on the front pastedown. The binding is worn. The text is partly browned, the plate with the playing cards has a large horizontal tear and the upper left corner has been torn off, but is still present. Otherwise a good copy. Cole, The great mirror of folly, nrs. 1-4, 6-8, 10-71, 73; Muller, Historieplaten 3535 ff.; Van Rijn, Atlas van Stolk, 3452 ff.; STCN 254984576; cf. (slightly differing collation or fingerprint) STCN 254984185, 293084076, 228136539.
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