The South-Sea House in Bishopsgate Street
Date1754
Engraver
Thomas Bowles II
ca.1689 - 1767
OriginEngland, London
MediumLine engraving and etching on laid paper with hand coloring
DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 18 1/8in. (34.3 × 46cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1991-9
DescriptionTitle on banner reads: "THE SOUTH SEAHOUSE in Bishopsgate Street"Label TextThe South Sea Company was a joint stock company founded in 1711. It was founded to help pay down the Britain's enormous debt. To make profits, the company was granted the exclusive right to sell enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies in the "South Seas" (which was how the English referred to South America and the surrounding waters). They never realized a profit from the monopoly, the stock prices rose rapidly resulting in an economic crisis that became known as the South Sea Bubble. This depiction of The South Sea House from the Bishops-gate Street entrance was published in the 1754 edition of John Stow's Survey of London. ProvenanceBefore 1991, Parker Gallery (London, England); 1991-present, purchased by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA).
