Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, vertoonende de opkomst, voortgang en ondergang der Actie, Bubbel en Windnegotie, in Vrankryk, Engeland, en de Nederlanden, gespleegt in den Jaare MDCCXX..
AN EARLY ISSUE of this biting and vulgar satire on the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles and an extraordinary visual record with 78 plates of the first banking crash, showing the shocking effects of the “South Sea Bubble” in France, England and Holland, and placing John Law (1671-1729), with his Mississippi company scheme, squarely at the center of the disastrous chain of events.
Of the two plates, each bearing four small engravings. (Cole 26 "Bombario" etc. and 29 "Verhens-beker" etc.) the engravings have been cut out and mounted on another (contemp.) leaf; 5 plates (Cole 7, 9, 10, 13, 16) w. tear on middle fold in (partly blank) lower margin (2x repaired).
Cole 13 also with a repaired tear in the lower blank corner; title-page and a few plates yellowed/ trifle foxed. A fine copy in a nice contemp. binding.
Cole 2-45, 47-70, 72, 73, 3 extra plates (consisting of mounted engraved portraits (of Quinquenpoix, Madame Law and Jacques III Pretendent D'Angleterre (Cole suppl. plates 2, 3 and 4)) within the engraved border belonging to the absent first plate "Eere-Titel, of Gordyn voor het Schouburg" ("Een schoone Lofkrans (...)")) and a small extra map "Louisiana by de Rivier Mississippi" (Cole suppl. 6).
Without Cole 46 (De inventeur der windnegotie, op zyn zegekar), 71 (Koning en Koningin van de Mississippi) and 74 (second part of Toverkaart)).
Biting satirical caricatures of The Great Mirror of Folly. "In neither of these [France and England] did there appear such a stout and extravagant piece as this Dutch volume" (Cole).
This copy has 78 copper-engraved plates and maps, most double-page and a few folding on 73 pages. The set of 8 Bombario Auctionist’s printed on separate paper are mounted with 1-4, and 4-8 on two single pages.
The text provides the charters of important companies floated in various Dutch cities during the period of bubble fever, and the plates expose the principals of these companies to merciless ridicule. "The combination of such prosaic data with the numerous satirical engravings, with the reprint of comedies and satires, and with a description of bubble playing cards offers the student a unique historical document, the like of which was not thrown up by the speculative manias in either France or England" (Cole, The Great Mirror of Folly… An Economic-Bibliographical Study, p.1).
The Tafereel is perhaps an essential factor in the slow development of modern corporate organizations. "Against the joint-stock manner of business arrangements were thrown the fears engendered by this popular portrayal of the downfall of the 'windnegotie.' Possibly a mere book was an economic force" (Cole, p.20).
'The engravings, which illustrate the rise and fall of the great speculation, are full of humor; many are exceedingly ludicrous, and some very obscene… The number of plates in copies varies from 60 to 74" (Sabin).
Read more about Speculative bubbles - The First financial crisis.
Reference: Goldsmiths' 5879. Howes G442. Kress 3217. Sabin 28932.
