Catalog Archive
Auction 128, Lot 577

"De Meerman van't Noorder Gewest als Opper Directeur der Zee-plaat Verkruyers van het Verkeerde Pampus…", Anon.

Subject: Netherlands

Period: 1720 (circa)

Publication: Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid

Color: Hand Color

Size:
11 x 12.8 inches
27.9 x 32.5 cm
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This is a satirical engraving from the important account of one the most infamous financial meltdowns in history. In the foreground a merman in a boat with the arms of the seven cities of the Noorderkwartier is pulled by mermaids with the city of Enkhuizen in the distance. Enkhuizen, a harbor-town of the VOC, aspired to be the most important harbor city in the Netherlands. However the harbor had silting problems that formed a large sandbank, called Pampus. Its city fathers devised a plan, financed in part by stock speculation, to change the sandbank into a sea channel. The whole scheme went bankrupt during the financial turmoil that swept Europe in 1720.

References:

Condition: A

Estimate: $160 - $200

Sold for: $275

Closed on 5/20/2009

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