De Vergulden Turk

DE VERGULDEN TURK

(The Gilded Turk):

The mansion of a wealthy merchant. The figures in the gable, - Neptune and Mercury, gods of the sea and of communication, and the turbanned Turk, suggest that the merchant traded with Constantinople. The first Dutch trader with Constantinople on a large scale was Bartholomeus van Panhuysen of Leiden. Van Panhuysen was a family connection of van der Meulen, the merchant banker who organized the construction of the new front of the town hall.