This dish is one of a series of plates made for the Dutch market between 1722 - 1735 as a satirical attack on the financial world of the early 18th century. The series is called 'Bubble' plates, since it was likely to have been made to satirize the South Sea Bubble 'mania' which burst in 1720, in order to warn Dutch speculators not to set up a similar company in Holland or to ridicule the shareholders of the Dutch East India Company. The series is also referred to as 'Commedia dell'Arte' and 'The Great Scene of Folly'.