I collect all of this stuff for years and did not know this whole story. I looked it up and even learned some new things.
Nipper was born in 1884 in
Bristol, England, and died in September 1895.
[1] He was a
mixed-breed dog and probably part
Jack Russell Terrier,
[2] although some sources suggest that he was a
Smooth Fox Terrier,
[3] or "part
Bull Terrier".
[4] He was named Nipper because he would bite 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. Nipper himself died of natural causes in 1895 and was buried in
Kingston upon Thames in Clarence Street, in a small park surrounded by
magnolia trees. As time progressed the area was built upon, and a branch of
Lloyds Bank now occupies the site. On the wall of the bank, just inside the entrance, a brass plaque commemorates the terrier that lies beneath the building.
[7]
On 10 March 2010, a small road near to the dog's resting place in Kingston upon Thames was named Nipper Alley in commemoration of this resident.
[8]
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In 1898, three years after Nipper's death,
Francis Barraud, his last owner and brother of his first owner, painted a picture of Nipper listening intently to a wind-up
Edison-Bell cylinder
phonograph. Thinking the Edison-Bell Company located in New Jersey, USA,
[5] might find it useful, he presented it to James E. Hough, who promptly said, "Dogs don't listen to phonographs". On May 31, 1899, Barraud went to the Maiden Lane offices of
The Gramophone Company with the intention of borrowing a brass horn to replace the original black horn on the painting. Manager William Barry Owen suggested that if the artist replaced the machine with a
Berliner disc
gramophone, the company would buy the painting. The image became the successful trademark of the
Victor and
HMV record labels,
HMV music stores, and the
Radio Corporation of America, after the acquisition of the Victor company in 1929. The trademark was registered by Berliner for use in the United States on July 10, 1900.
[9] (See
His Master's Voice for a complete history of the brands based on Nipper.)
The slogan "
His Master's Voice", along with the painting, was sold to The Gramophone Company for 100 pounds sterling - 50 pounds for the copyright and 50 pounds for the painting itself.
[10] Francis Barraud said : "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."
[11] The original oil painting hung in the EMI board room in
Hayes, Middlesex, for many years.
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