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Nipper
Nipper (1884 – September 1895) was a British dog. He is best known as the subject of the 1898 painting His Master's Voice, painted posthumously by his owner Francis Barraud. The painting was purchased by the Gramophone Company (later EMI) in 1899 but did not begin using Nipper's image on its record labels until 1909. The Gramophone Company's American affiliate the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor), adopted the trademark in 1901 and used the dog and Gramophone on its products and advertising much more aggressively, launching Nipper as one of the world's best-known trademarks. BackgroundNipper 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][4] or possibly "part Bull Terrier".[5] He was named Nipper because he would often "nip" at the backs of visitors' legs.[6] Nipper originally lived with his owner, Mark Henry Barraud, in the Prince's Theatre where Barraud was a scenery designer.[7] 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. 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 site as Nipper's resting place.[8] His Master's VoiceIn 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".[6] 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 obliged. The slogan "His Master's Voice", along with the painting, was sold to The Gramophone Company for £100 (equivalent to £13,667 in 2023) – half for the copyright and half for the physical painting itself.[9] 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!'. Since the real Nipper had died in 1895, another dog was used.[10] The image also became the successful trademark of the affliated American Victor Talking Machine Company, as Emile Berliner registered the trademark for use in the United States on 10 July 1900.[11] Victor Entertainment uses the logo only within Japan, which includes the phrase "His Master's Voice".[citation needed]
Legacy  The likeness of Nipper has been reproduced into pocket watches, salt and pepper shakers, paperweights, cigar lighters, stuffed toys, coin banks, coffee mugs, T-shirts, neckties and clocks.[13] These advertising items have long been popular collectables.[14] 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.[15] Real dogs continue to play the roles of Nipper and Chipper, but Chipper has to be replaced much more frequently, since his character is a puppy.[16] 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.[17] On 10 March 2010, a small road near to the dog's final resting place in Kingston upon Thames was officially named Nipper Alley.[8] Statues A four-ton Nipper can be seen on the roof of the former RCA distribution building now owned by Arnoff Moving & Storage.[18] The site is located at 991 Broadway in Albany, New York.[12] 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.[citation needed] In Orlando, Florida, at Walt Disney World, 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.[19] Various reproductions of Nipper can be found in the permanent exhibition of the Musée des ondes Emile Berliner in Montreal, Quebec,[20] 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".[21] 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.[22] See alsoReferences
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