Spotprent over het dagbladzegel, 1869 1869

Johan Michaël Schmidt Crans's satirical cartoon "Spotprent over het dagbladzegel, 1869" from 1869 depicts a woman offering a newspaper to a machine labeled “ZEGEL MACHINE” surrounded by instruments of torture like a stocks, a guillotine, and shackles. The cartoon comments on the Dutch newspaper tax levied on the press in the 19th century, which the artist criticizes as a form of oppression. This political cartoon, characteristic of 19th-century Dutch graphic satire, utilizes caricature to comment on social and political issues.