apotheek-intec gaper nr 36 - Sculpture, gaper - 20 m - ground natural stone

intec Gaper number 36. See and read the booklet. Collection of 41 gapers, issued and made by the company Intec in Veenendaal. Only drugstores and pharmacists with sufficient turnover received these, unique, hand-painted gapers. All made of ground natural stone, only number 41, the last is resin. The molds were eventually destroyed at a farewell party of the Company in front of the guests.

Gapers were identification marks 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. The most that are still used as identification marks come 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 practitioner; show your tongue for a diagnosis, and then take the prescribed medicines. Some gapers 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 fall open. The most common gapers are Easterners with a turban. Furthermore there are fools, police officers, firefighters, Roman soldiers and sick

Gapers are real folk-art products and occurred only in the Netherlands and Flanders