Great Mirror of Folly ... Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaashied

Item #61785

(LAW, JOHN). (MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE). The Great Mirror of Folly... Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaashied Vertoonenede de Opkomst, Voortgang en Ondergang der Actie, Bubbel en Windnegotie, in Vrankryk, Engeland, en de Nederlanden... [Holland], 1720. 1st ed. Folio. 25,[1],52,26, 29-31, 8, 9pp. Title printed in black and red. 75 engraved plates including 18 folding plates, 2 maps (1 folding). Contemporary mottled calf, covers elaborately panelled in gilt with central and corner figures, spine in eight gilt-decorated compartments with raised spine bands, gilt-lettered brown morocco spine label. Outer hinges starting, light scattered foxing, else very good. A rare collection of 18th-century satirical text and prints relating to the Mississippi Bubble scheme of John Law of 1717-1720. Copies vary as to the number of plates from 60 to 85. "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with the reprint of comedies and satires, and with a description of bubble playing cards offers the student a unique historical document, the like of which was not thrown up by the speculation mainia in either France or England" (Cole, The Great Mirror of Folly, p.1). "[R]epresenting the origin, progress, and downfall of the South Sea Bubble in France, England, and Holland, [this work] is an exceedingly curious collection of emblematical plates and caricatures on the scheme of J. Law and the Mississippi Company and the imitations of it in Holland, with their fatal results. Not a few of the scenes here depicted have been reproduced in the new York Exchange. The engravings, which illustrate the rise and fall of the great speculation, are full of humor; many of them are exceedingly ludicrous, and some very obscene. They are finely engraved on copper, and are accompanied with full descriptions in prose and poetry. So much offence was given to the English and French by this book that medals were struck by them in ridicule of the Dutch... The number of the plates in copies varies..." (Sabin). Law (1671-1729) was a Scottish economist who held that money was a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade. Louis XV appointed him Controller General of Finances. Law established the Banque Generale, effectively France's first central bank. His Mississippi scheme w.

Price: $10,000.00