The Dancing Table in the Second Chamber

This Dutch wood engraving satirizes a spiritualist séance held in Parliament's Second Chamber, where a table allegedly moved of its own accord. The print depicts the chaotic scene: politicians and observers crowd around the tilting table while skeptics and believers clash. The artist mocks both the credulity of officials who entertained supernatural claims and the spiritualist movement sweeping through mid-19th-century Europe. Part of a long tradition descending from Hogarth and Gillray through German Bilderbögen sheets, this print weaponizes caricature and absurdist staging to ridicule institutional folly. The exaggerated poses and crowded composition amplify the scene's ridiculousness, turning political gullibility into visual comedy.