Pasquin’s Wind Cards of the Wind Trade in the Year 1720
A True Picture of the Famous Skreen Describ’d in the London Journal No. 85
The World is a Stage; Everyone Acts His Part and Gets His Share
Anonymous, after Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) and Gysbert Tysens (1693–1732), 1720, Etching and engraving
Like the plays compiled in The Great Mirror of Folly, this print underscores the volume’s theatrical character. Initially designed as the publication’s title page, it shows curtains parting on a performance. The devil leads a procession of speculators to a hellish fate, carrying out the judgment of the Olympian gods above. “One corrects customs by laughing at them,” instructs the Latin motto below. In the left foreground are emblems of those who resisted the wind trade. The surrounding spandrels narrate the progress of the bubbles. Glimpses of enslaved and exploited persons appear at the four corners of the page, visualizing the avaricious ambitions of bubble companies to colonize the four corners of the world.
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries.
