originele intec gaper nr 39, collectors item, handgeschilderd - Sculpture, gaper - 18 cm - ground natural stone

intec Gaper number 39. See and read the booklet. A collection of 41 gapers, issued and produced by the company Intec in Veenendaal. Only drugstores and apothecaries with sufficient turnover received these, unique, hand-painted gapers. All made from ground natural stone, only number 41, the last one is made of resin. The molds were ultimately destroyed at a farewell party of the Company in the presence of the guests.

Gapers were insignia for pharmacies, chemists, and drugstores. They appeared for the first time at the end of the sixteenth century and occur only in Dutch-, Frisian-, and Flemish-language areas. Most of the ones still used as insignia date from the nineteenth century or are replicas.
The gaper remains a mysterious phenomenon. The origin is unknown. For its feature, the wide-open mouth, there are several explanations. A medical one; showing your tongue for a diagnosis, and then taking the prescribed medicines. Some gapers indeed have a pill on the tongue or a sulfur match in the mouth. Another explanation could be that the patient, overwhelmed by fatigue, lets his mouth hang open. The most common gapers are easterners with turbans. There are also jesters, police officers, firefighters, Roman soldiers, and the sick.