Little Thumb and the Ogre

Pharmacy A.J. van der Pigge at the Gierstraat in Haarlem was opened in 1849. Above the entrance is a so called and traditional ´gaper´, a stone or wooden head indicating that the building is a pharmacy, I have showed you several more on this blog before. And just to remind you: 'Gaper' literally means 'yawner'; the figure is always displayed with an open mouth, and sometimes you can see a pill he has taken resting on his tongue. In fact he wasn't yawning, but opening his mouth to take medicine.

PHARMACY A.J. VAN DER PIGGE

´Little Thumb and the Ogre´

While building the V&D department store in 1930 - 1934

this premises was the only one left to stay from all the

original buildings on this spot.

A well know example of a shop keeper

who refused to give up.

Next to the pharmacy used to be a V&D department store. When V&D came here in the 1930s, a lot of other small shops were forced to go away so the department store could take up the space. Pharmacy Van Der Pigge refused to leave, and in the end was allowed to stay.
This text is on the outside wall of the pharmacy and it got quite a different meaning recently...  Just a month ago V&D (a chain of large department stores in the Netherlands) went bankrupt, and over 10,000 people in 62 Dutch cities lost their jobs. All V&D department stores were closed. Pharmacy A.J. van der Pigge is still open for business...

I'm linking to St Germain's Blog and Seasons.

Pharmacy sign

I found this 'gaper' above the door of hotel 'Logement De Gaaper', near the market square in Amersfoort. It's the oldest stone house in the city, and as the head above the entrance indicates it used to be a pharmacy in the second half of the 19th century. The open mouth did not mean the figure was yawning, but that he was ready to take medicine.

Linking to signs, signs,

gaper

The Zuiderzeemuseum in Enkhuizen has a nice collection of 'gapers'. A gaper is a stone or wooden head on the front of a building in the Netherlands, indicating that this building is a pharmacy. The literal translation would be 'yawner', as the figure is always displayed with an open mouth, and sometimes you can see a pill he has taken resting on his tongue. In fact he wasn't yawning, but opening his mouth to take medicine.