CIRCA 1722

Sets of these plates were produced between 1722 and 1735 for the Dutch market as a satirical attack on the financial world of the early 18th Century, and are variously referred to as 'The Great Scene of Folly', 'South Sea Bubble' or 'Commedia dell'Arte' plates. They satirize the South Sea Bubble 'mania' which burst in 1720, possibly to warn Dutch speculators not to set up a similar company in Holland and/or to ridicule the shareholders of the Dutch East India Company. See Howard and Ayers, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 234-235 for a discussion on these sets of plates. For other examples in the Hodroff Collection, see D.S. Howard, Choice of the China Trader, p. 54, pl. 25 and R.W. Fuchs II and D.S. Howard, op. cit., pp. 48-49, pl. 13.