From en.wikipedia.org:
[Dog featured on the His Master's Voice trademark] [the dog named Nipper]
[date=April 2022] {{Infobox animal | name = Nipper | image =
OriginalNipper.jpg | image_size = 250px | caption = Photo of Francis Barraud's
original 1898 _His Master's Voice_ painting depicting an Edison cylinder
phonograph | species = _Canis familiaris_ | breed = Mongrel (part terrier) |
gender = Male | birth_date = [1884] | birth_place = Bristol, United Kingdom |
death_date = [September 1895] | death_place = England, United Kingdom |
resting_place = Kingston upon Thames, United Kingdom |
resting_place_coordinates = [51.410990] | known = Subject of the His Master's
Voice trademark | owner = Mark Henry Barraud }}
NIPPER ([1884] – September 1895) was a dog from England. He is best known as
the subject of _His Master's Voice_ (1898), painted posthumously by his second
owner, Francis Barraud. The painting became a international entertainment
trademark, with Nipper's likeness used across consumer electronics, record
labels and entertainment retail.
** Life
Nipper was born in 1884 in Bristol, England, and died in September 1895.[1] He
was likely a mixed-breed dog, although most early sources suggest that he was
a Smooth Fox Terrier, or perhaps a Jack Russell Terrier,[2][3]<ref name=
Wrong>[ url= https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-wrong-dog] or
possibly "part Bull Terrier".[4] He was named Nipper because he would often
"nip" at the backs of visitors' legs.[5]
Nipper originally lived with his owner, Mark Henry Barraud, in the Prince's
Theatre where Barraud was a scenery designer.[6] When Barraud died in 1887,
his brothers Philip and Francis took care of the dog, then Francis took Nipper
to Liverpool, and later to Mark's widow in Kingston upon Thames, London.
Nipper died of natural causes in 1895 and was buried in Kingston upon Thames
at Clarence Street, in a small park surrounded by magnolia trees.[7]
** His Master's Voice
[His Master's Voice] In 1898, three years after Nipper's death, Francis
Barraud, the brother of Nipper's original owner, painted a picture of the dog
listening intently to an Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. Thinking the
Edison-Bell Company located in New Jersey, United States, might be interested
in the painting, he offered it to James E. Hough, Edison-Bell's British
representative, who promptly replied, "Dogs don't listen to phonographs".<ref
name="the nipper saga" />
On 31 May 1899, Barraud visited the Maiden Lane offices of The Gramophone
Company to inquire about borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black
horn in order to brighten up the painting. When Gramophone Company founder
and manager William Barry Owen was shown the painting, he suggested that if
the artist painted out the cylinder machine and replaced it with a Berliner
disc gramophone, he would buy the painting. Barraud gladly obliged and the
phrase "His Master's Voice", along with the painting, was sold to The
Gramophone Company for £100 ([UK]) – half for the copyright and half for the
physical painting itself.[8] The original oil painting hung in The Gramophone
Company's headquarters, and then in EMI's boardroom in Hayes, Middlesex for
many years. It appears that after the image was copyrighted, two employees of
the Gramophone Company, William Sinkler Darby and Theodore Bernard Birnbaum,
recorded a Mutoscope in 1900 entitled 'Nipper runs amok!'. A similar looking
dog was used to act as Nipper.[9]
The Gramophone Company used Nipper's likeness on its sound equipment and began
using the image on its record labels in 1909, as well as the HMV retail shop
in 1921. Emile Berliner, creator of the disc gramophone, registered the
trademark in the United States on 10 July 1900 and Berliner's business partner
Eldridge Johnson began using the image in advertising for the recently created
Consolidated Talking Machine Company which was reorganized in 1901 as the
Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor). Johnson used Nipper and
the gramophone extensively on Victor's products and advertising.[10] The
trademark was also utilized by Victor's Japanese division and remains in use
by JVC.[11]{{quote box | quote = "It is difficult to say how the idea came to
me beyond the fact that it suddenly occurred to me that to have my dog
listening to the phonograph, with an intelligent and rather puzzled
expression, and call it 'His Master's Voice' would make an excellent subject.
We had a phonograph and I often noticed how puzzled he was to make out where
the voice came from. It certainly was the happiest thought I ever had."
—Francis Barraud[12] | align = right | width = 25% | bgcolor = #CCDDFF }}
** Legacy
right As time progressed, Nipper's resting place was built upon, and the
Kingston upon Thames branch of Lloyds Bank now occupies the site. To
commemorate Nipper's 100th birthday, Mr. D.F. Johnson, the then-chairman of
the HMV retailer, placed a commemorative plaque to the rear of the bank on the
15th of August 1984, understood to be near to the resting place.[13] An
additional plaque was placed on the wall inside the entrance to the bank,
referencing the one outside.[14]
Nipper's likeness has been reproduced into pocket watches, salt and pepper
shakers, paperweights, cigar lighters, stuffed toys, coin banks, coffee mugs,
T-shirts, neckties and clocks.[15] These advertising items have long been
popular collectables.[16]
In 1984, _New York Times_ writer Hans Fantel described his early childhood
impression of Nipper:[Fantel] <blockquote> "For some who were to discover
music through the phonograph in later years, Nipper's image became almost
synonymous with music itself. It certainly was that way for me: I remember
how, as a child, I used to keep my eyes fixed on Nipper as he spun on the
turntable, and I would grow dizzy with the effort to keep the dog upright in
my mind. It took me a long time to discover that, by not looking at the dog,
I could hear the music without growing dizzy. But it wasn't as much fun that
way. For an enchanted 3-year-old, it was Nipper - not Enrico Caruso - who
addressed me in those magic tones that first opened for me the realm of
music." </blockquote>
A depiction of Nipper appeared in RCA television advertisements, and later
versions with his "son", a puppy named Chipper who was added to the RCA family
in 1991.[17] Real dogs played the roles of Nipper and Chipper, but Chipper had
to be replaced much more frequently, since his character is a puppy.[18]
A Baltimore street leading to a development of town-houses is named Nipper
Way, where a statue of Nipper resided for a brief time before being
relocated.[19]
On 10 March 2010, a small road near to the dog's final resting place in
Kingston upon Thames was officially named Nipper Alley.<ref name="Surreycomet"
/>
*** Statues
A four-ton Nipper can be seen on the roof of the former RCA distribution
building now owned by Arnoff Moving & Storage.[20] The site is located at 991
Broadway in Albany, New York.<ref name="Rolfs" /> A statue of Nipper was
purchased by Jim Wells from RCA in Baltimore for $1, where it originally
graced the former RCA Building on Russell Street. After spending many years
on private property in Nipper Park in Merrifield, Virginia, perched over Lee
Highway (U.S. Route 29), it has now been returned to Baltimore, Maryland.
Nipper now sits atop the Maryland Historical Society building at Park Avenue
and West Centre Street in Baltimore, and the statue now includes a gramophone.
A small statue of Nipper in the United Kingdom can be seen perched above a
doorway in the Merchant Venturers Building on the corner of Park Row and
Woodland Road in Bristol; this building, part of the University of Bristol,
stands near the site of the old Prince's Theatre.[date=June 2022]
At Walt Disney World in Florida, a replication of Nipper with a gramophone
appeared inside of a spaceship on the Space Mountain rollercoaster, and
remained until the sponsorship from RCA to Walt Disney ended, upon which he
was made into a robot dog and moved elsewhere within the queue.[21][Ace]
Various reproductions of Nipper can be found in the permanent exhibition of
the [fr-ca] in Montreal, Quebec,[22] a museum dedicated to the work of Emile
Berliner and his companies that Nipper was the face of.
In 1984, a life-sized ornament of Nipper appears in the music video of Cyndi
Lauper's song "Time After Time".[23]
In May 2017, the City of Albany held a contest for various groups or artists
to submit designs for creative, painted Nipper statues which were placed
throughout the city. Ten of the contestants were chosen to create ten Nipper
statues – which were displayed for one year and then auctioned off for
charity.[24]
** See also
- List of individual dogs
** References
*** Citations
[reflist]
*** Works cited
- [last=Fantel]
- [last=Ace]
** External links
[Nipper]
- "Little Nipper" background (see http://www.rcaglobal.com/little-nipper.html) at RCA Global Communications, New York City
- RCA Building, Albany, NY (see http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==1910)
- Koenigsberg, Allen (June 2022). "Nipper's Arrival in the New World" (see https://www.academia.edu/79315512/Nippers_Arrival_in_the_New_World) . Academia.
- Musée des ondes Emile Berliner (see https://moeb.ca)
Category:1884 animal births Category:1895 animal deaths Category:Advertising
characters Category:Dog mascots Category:English artists' models
Category:Individual animals in England Category:Individual dogs in the United
Kingdom Category:Music mascots Category:Mascots introduced in 1899
Category:RCA brands Category:Technicolor SA