Oh Raree Shoe

Pierce Tempest after Marcellus Laroon

Engraving

Great Britain

1687

8 1/2" x 6"

Two pages from The Cryes of the City of London (B81).Old Harry, a known London showman from the 17th. century, captured in Laroon's drawing as part of an early series of the Cries of London showing itinerant street traders and performers.

0789

Harlequin Met de Rarekiek

Anonymous

Copper engraving

The Netherlands

1709

7" x 5"

Three pages from J. Pooks Rommel-Zoodjen published by Timotheus Ten Hoorn, Amsterdam, 1709 (B400).

0720

Fürwitziger Curiositet-Narr

J. C. Weigel

Engraving

Vienna, Austria

1709

8" x 6 1/4"

A page from:Abraham a Sancta Clara: Centifolium Stultorum in Quarto.

0721

Fürwitziger Curiositet-Narr

Anonymous

Pen & ink

Continental

c.1720

3 1/4" x 3"

Sketch made for or after Fürwitziger Curiositet-Narr

0722

O Rare Show

I. Smith after H. Cerk

Mezzotint

Great Britain

c. 1710

12" x 9"

One of the earliest know showmen, James Larouche, with a cabinet of curiosity. The cabinet has nine distinct scenes.

0723

Elias Baeck

Engraving

Germany

1714

Image: 5 1/4" x 7", page !4" x 9"

A page from the book Il Callotto resuscitato oder Neü eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet (B553). The page has a list of all the plates and a border with a number of small images including a dwarf with a peepshow.

4160

Nicolo Cantabella, Savoyard

William Konig

Engraving

Germany

1716

9" x 5 1/4"

A page from the book Il Callotto resuscitato oder Neü eingerichtes Zwerchen Cabinet (B480). The book contains 57 plates of famous dwarfs including the savoyard with his peepshow.

2719

Georg Philipp Rugendas I (1666-1742)

Mezzotint

Germany

1720

11" x 16"

2974

Memorial Arch at the Burial Ground for Exhausted Stockholders

Anonymous

Etching

The Netherlands

1720

18" x 13 1/2"

A page from HET GROOTE TAFAREL DER DWAASHEID(The Great Mirror of Folly) subtitled: “The Rise and Downfall of the Shares of the Bubble companies and Joint-Stock Company Trade in France, England and the Low Countries”. This book satirizes John Law’s economic system and the wild land speculation by his Mississippi Company in Louisiana.

In this print a portrait of John Law, in one of the openings at the top of the arch, looks over the hordes of unhappy investors gathering in different groups to discuss their disastrous investments. One large group can be seen throwing their worthless shares to the ground. In the lower left corner a peepshow offers views of America’s South.

Nearly every copy of this book is different because it is a folio made up of existing prints and text assembled by a printer. This copy has a collection of 95 prints.This book was a famous satire on John Law's system and the wild speculation in stocks that supported land speculation and trade in Louisiana The book, each copy seemingly unique, with a different number of plates is full of satirical material.

0725

Southwark Fair

William Hogarth

Line engraving

Great Britain

1733

13 1/2" x 17 3/4""

Hogarth's famous image of a crowded fair, a booth in the left foreground collapsing ,a rope walker and the booth of the conjurer Isaac Fawkes, as well as a peepshow with a boy taking a view and the showman leaning into the box, grimacing to enliven the show.

0726