sleeping dumplings." It is difficult to say if all the different types of gapers have been around since the beginning. It is also possible that most of the different characters were a later development. Use The gaper in the late 16th-century functioned as a hangout out sign on the street. Not only did the figurehead communicate information about the origin of the medicines, but it was also a tool for luring in customers. In this period there were no house numbers. The gaper served as a hangout known as a recognizable point for business. Pharmacies often decorated their storefronts with 'rarities' to invoke customer curiosities. Exotic items such as a stuffed crocodile or tortoise, ostrich eggs, deer antlers, narwhal teeth, sawfish teeth, elk legs, and peacock feathers were popular decorations. Some say that the gaper was used to taunt non-buying bystanders in the street. The gaper could have also served as a mirror image of the drugstore's pharmacist. Historical images show that the cap with a hanging point and tassel, similar to some hats depicted on gapers, was regularly worn by the 16th-century pharmacists. Saturated market Beginning in 1840, the demand for medicine quickly became unbalanced. This caused many drugstores to close, taking the gaper figureheads with them. The Act on the Exercise of Medicine in 1865 declared that the pharmacy had to be separate from the drugstore. Pharmacists were required to have a diploma, if not, then they were no longer considered a chemist. This caused the drug stores to change their appearance. The pharmacy displayed the mortar as a symbol for the ability to prepare medicines, while the druggists continued to use the gaper as a symbol. This caused a large decline in the numbers of gapers left in the cities. Controversy Recently, gaper figureheads have been stolen from storefronts. However, some have been later returned to new locations throughout the Netherlands. The gaper on the facade of Wijde Heisteeg 4 was stolen and delivered back in 2004 on the sidewalk outside the Municipal Archive on the Amsteldijk. There are stories of gapers being vandalized and used for jokes. A gaper from the Wolvenstraat in Amsterdam was pushed off of its platform by pranksters in March 1960. In 1830, a gaper was stuffed with gunpowder by a group of students and then blown up in the middle of the street. In 1895, the gaper on Heiligeweg 42 was