Page 119 - Hodroff Collection January 2019 SaleCat

539
A SET OF FOUR DOUCAI 'SOUTH SEA BUBBLE' PLATES investor bufoonery. One infuential satirical work published in Amsterdam
KANGXI PERIOD, CIRCA 1720 in 1720 was titled This great Theatre of Folly, representing the origin, progress
Each enameled with a Commedia dell'Arte fgure wearing a chequered and downfall of the South Sea Bubble in France, England and Holland.
costume above a tiled foor, the border with a band of leaves in blue, green, Engravings of this type eventually made their way to China, to be copied onto
iron-red and gilt porcelain.
8º in. (20.9 cm.) diameter, each (4)
This set of four is from the best-known series of export "Bubble" plates,
$15,000–25,000
with Commedia fgures in doucai enamels alongside Dutch inscriptions
lampooning both swindlers and speculators. This version, with its
The 'South Sea Bubble' was a rampant, widespread 1720s fnancial
exaggerated poses of Harlequin, whose features have become almost Asian,
speculation that led to fnancial ruin and even imprisonment in both Holland
was found in the Dreesman Collection, no. J-83, sold Christie's, Amsterdam,
and England. Spoofs of the foolish and greedy investors were published in
16 April 2002, lot 1309 (a set of fve plus one repeat).
many media, often using the popular Commedia dell'Arte Harlequin to mock
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