18th-century banker; Jewish banks must have looked just the same.
In the 17th and 18th century the Jews of Venice were a flourishing community.
Officially, they could work only as moneylenders, have pawn-shops or deal with second-hand clothes and furnishing, but then of which quality! Sir Wotton, an English nobleman who lived in Venice, bought furniture, fabrics, carpets, chandeliers, and other various objects in the Jewish Ghetto. Even most of the decorations for the golden boat of the Doge, the Bucintoro, came from the Jewish shops.
