print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- Cc,2.9
- Title
- Object: The South Sea Scheme
- Description
-
Satire on the financial scandal of the South Sea Bubble; a composite scene in the City of London identified by the Guildhall, St Paul's Cathedral and the Monument (its inscription changed to record the destruction of the city by the South Sea); a crowd is gathered around a merry-go-round (on which ride a prostitute, a clergyman, a shoe-black, an old crone and a Scottish nobleman); to left, the Devil hacks the limbs of Fortune, while religious leaders (both Anglican and Jewish) play at pitch and hustle; to right, emblematic figures of Honour and Honesty are beaten by Self-Interest and Villainy, and Trade sleeps. c.1721; this impression between 1768 and 1779
Etching and engraving
- Production date
- 1721
- Dimensions
-
Height: 263 millimetres
-
Width: 328 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This impression was published between 1768 and 1779 when John Bowles gave his address as 13 Cornhill.
An old annotation in a copy of Stephens's catalogue (P&D Tt.6.31) records that the copper plate was in the possession of Robert Wilkinson of Fenchurch Street in 1817.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: South Sea Bubble 1720
- Acquisition date
- 1827 (before)
- Acquisition notes
- See comment on S,2.1.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- Cc,2.9
