The Bubblers [sic] Medley, #22

History

"The Bubblers [sic] Medley" is one of a pair of prints on the subject of the South Sea Bubble or first great stock market crash. It was originally printed in London in 1720 by Thomas Bowles (No. 69 St. Paul's Churchyard). For some reason, many of the extant English graphic satires on the Bubble came out of Bowles's shop.

The imprint on this copy (from McMaster University Library) reads "Carington Bowles" and is numbered "22." (The other "Medley" print is numbered "23".) Carington Bowles, a nephew to Thomas, inherited the business and probably ran off subsequent copies from the old plates (slightly revised to reflect the new issue); these could be sold as interesting memorials in themselves or used as catalogs advertising other prints available from Bowles' shop. Presumably there must have been at least 23 such prints.

Description

Both "Medley" prints are collage-like representations (i.e., random overlay) of various other prints and related print-items (e.g., playing cards, newspaper pages) having to do with the financial crisis that occurred in 1720. This sense of crowding is itself archetypal for periods of mass financial speculation in Western culture. For practical reasons, the print is described/reproduced here in five separate sections:

1) top across and upper left
(Title and "The Dutch Bubblers")
2) upper right
(Mint Coffee House Cartoon)
3) middle across
(background, playing-card and "Quinquempoix [sic] Street"
4) lower left
(Excerpt from Jonathan Swift's "Bubble Poem")
5) lower right
(_London Gazette_ page, playing-card deck-cover,
bottom scene [reproduced as Home Page logo])

To view the entire print (9.75"x13" or 25x33.5cm) click on here, but beware this is a large file!

For the most detailed description of the print, see Dorothy George's _Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum, No. 1610 or follow the above links. For a critical essay on the subject of Bowles'graphic satires, click on here.

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