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De Stropende Actie-Valk om Hals, en't Bubbel-Rotje onder de Klauuwen van den UIL
Public domain · digitally restored by ComicBooks.com
Cartoons & Caricature

De Stropende Actie-Valk om Hals, en't Bubbel-Rotje onder de Klauuwen van den UIL

· 1720

This Dutch engraving satirizes the South Sea Bubble financial collapse through anthropomorphic characters: a predatory owl clutches a falcon (representing speculation) while a smaller figure tumbles below. The circular composition frames the moral chaos of unchecked greed and market manipulation that devastated investors across Europe.

Part of a robust tradition of political prints stemming from 17th-century emblem books and Dutch Golden Age satire, this work preceded Hogarth's mid-century innovations in sequential narrative. The hand-colored etching or engraving employs allegorical animals and dense Dutch verse to condemn both speculators and the financial instruments that ruined them—establishing visual and textual strategies that would echo through Gillray, Rowlandson, and the later comic tradition.

About this artifact

Date
1720
Rights
Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
Restoration
Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.

Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.