originele intec gaper nr 21 - Sculpture, apotheek, collectors item, handgeschilderd - 19 cm - crushed natural stone - 1970

Rare Intec Gaper number 28. See and read the booklet. A collection of 41 gapers, published and made by the firm 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 one is made of resin. The molds were finally destroyed at a farewell party of the Firm in front of the guests.
Gapers were recognition marks for pharmacies, chemists and drugstores. They first appeared at the end of the sixteenth century and occur only in Dutch-, Frisian-, and Flemish-language areas. The most that are still used as recognition marks date from the nineteenth century or are replicas.
The gaper remains a mysterious phenomenon. The origin is unknown. For its characteristic, the widely opened 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 fall open. The most common gapers are Easterners with a turban. Furthermore there are jesters, police officers, firefighters, Roman soldiers and sick

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

Shipping to the USA is not possible due to changing import duties.