The Bookshop and Lottery Agency of Jan de Groot in the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam

Beside his signature Isaac Ouwater painted a small string of numbers, the month, the year split in two and the day. Together they give 25 October 1779, the day sales opened for the Generality Lottery, the state lottery of the Dutch Republic. That explains the scrum at the door of Jan de Groot's shop, men shoving and climbing over each other to get in, while a board above the entrance announces that tickets are sold here. Higher up runs a Latin motto in praise of learning and letters, since for the rest of the year this was a bookshop. Faces lean out of the upper windows to watch, and guests at the inns on either side look on with amusement. The house itself still stands on the Kalverstraat.