This dissertation examines how the 1720 crisis was actively produced, mediated, and commemorated through material and visual culture. It introduces the concept of “bubble objects”—playful objects like playing cards, fans, table ware—that encouraged performative interaction with ideas of financial speculation. The dissertation shows how both prints and decorative art objects drew on theatrical repertoires such as folly, commedia dell’arte and magic lantern performances, to articulate the instability of value in an emerging paper economy. Combining insights from theatre studies, (art) history,  and literary studies, the project aims to show how a crisis was produced rather than just reflected throughout different media.