This shop sign embraces the history of the repeated outbreaks from the 14th to the 18th century, which transformed history, society and folklore.

The windows also glow at night!
 
Sympathetic magic applied to pharmacology and medicine was a dominant practice in the 14th century, the belief that nature had hidden clues to medically effective drugs in their resemblances to the human body and its parts. An example of this can be seen in the design of a plague doctor’s mask. A common belief during outbreaks beginning from the Black Death, was that the infection was carried by birds, henceforth the sympathetically magical design of a Plague Doctor’s mask resembling a bird’s beak would protect the wearer as the birds would carry the disease but not get sick from it. 

This belief was further solidified as the design would keep the wearers face away from the infected, the clothing coated in wax and vinegar would have also been effective in warding off the infected fleas that carried the infection. 

Despite these advantages, Plague Doctors were mostly ineffective at stopping the outbreaks, the first of which from 1346–53 resulted in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people, and 30–60% of Europe's total population. The pestilence which would later gain the title of the Black Death.