Fine Books and Manuscripts

[Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid Amsterdam: D. Onder de Linden, ca 1720.]A group of 28 engravings from Het Groote Tafereel, comprising: 17 folding plates (399/401 x 365/458 mm sheets), 3 single-sheet engraved plates (348/400 x 250/244 mm sheets), 8 engraved vignettes with letterpress text (400/400 x 250/319 mm sheets). Double-page views include: Ruined Shareholders Restored ("De vervallen Actionisten, hersteld, door den Triompheerden Arlequin"), Ruin of the Stockbrokers ("Open Ondergang der Actieonisten het Thuilleriece Hof Quinquempoix"); They Became Crazy because they Believed in Schemes ("By veele zit de kei in't hooft om dat men in de wind gelooft"). A fine set of plates from this vulgar and biting satire on the Mississippi and South Sea Bubbles, the first banking crash. "This great Theatre of Folly 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 resultsThe 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" (see Sabin 28932). Complete list available on request.