Evidence of follies past

An exceedingly rare paper share for an English company traded at the height of the stock mania in the summer of 1720 – perhaps the only known survival of this iconic type of object that appears in numerous satirical prints and plays from the period as the symbol of folly – worthless bits of paper being blown by the wind of speculation.

The Great Mirror of Folly

An image of John Law as Don Quixote, from the volume:
Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid, Amsterdam, 1720,
the focus of a conference to be held at Yale University,
April 17-19, 2008: http://icf.som.yale.edu/GREAT_MIRROR/