Flipje en Streekmuseum Tiel

Tiel is also known as the ‘Fruitstad aan de Waal’ (Fruit City by the Waal) and so it should not be a surprise that the local celebrity is a comic figure made out of a raspberry. Flipje was born in 1935 as the mascot of jam factory De Betuwe, which makes him one of the oldest marketing figures in Europe, second only to the Michelin Man. The factory closed its doors in the ‘90s, but its story – and that of Flipje – lives on in one of the museum’s main exhibitions. “Fruit has always played an important role in the economy and culture of the Gelderland,” says director of the museum, Alexandra van Steen.