[Dixielandjazz] Nipper and His Master's Voice

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

Harry Callaghan is close to the mark with his comment about Nipper, the 
fox terrier, and the HMV logo. The full story is a bit more complicated 
and can be found in the now out-of-print publication by Leonard Petts, 
"The story of 'Nipper' and the 'His Master's Voice' picture painted by 
Francis Barraud", 2nd edition, Talking Machine Review, 1983.

The critical point is that Barraud's original painting was of the dog 
listening to a (cylinder) phonograph. The copyright application 
photograph of the original painting was discovered in 1972 and the 
instrument has been identified as an Edison "Commercial" Phonograph, 
sold in London by the Edison-Bell Phonograph Corporation Ltd. This 
machine was an early version of what we now call a dictaphone, ie it 
both recorded and played-back. It makes a lot more sense to have a dog 
listening to such a machine, rather than a disc recording on a gramophone.

We don't know when Barraud painted the first version of the picture - 
writing in 1921, he says "prior to the year 1899". The only hard date we 
have is his application for Memorandum of Assignment of Copyright - 11 
February 1899. Having been turned-down by the Edison-Bell company ("dogs 
don't listen to phonographs"), Barraud approached the Gramophone Company 
in late May 1899 and reached an agreement with it in September 1899 (₤50 
for the painting, ₤50 for the copyright). Barraud's agreement with the 
Gramophone Company was conditional on his painting-out the phonograph 
and replacing it with a gramophone.

Interestingly, the Gramophone Company did not make much use of the 
painting at first. It was used up until 1902 on letterheads, re-appeared 
on letterheads in 1907 and first used as a record label, with the name 
"His Master's Voice", in 1909. It was across the Atlantic that "the dog" 
took-off. Emile Berliner registered it as a trade mark in the USA in 
July 1900 and this right was acquired by the Victor Talking Machine 
Company in 1901.

Since we don't know when Barraud painted the picture, the big question 
is "was it painted from life, a photograph or from memory?" Since Nipper 
died in 1895 it is unlikely that it was painted from life (Barraud would 
not have waited 3 t 4 years to obtain copyright). The Wikipedia entry 
for Nipper says that Barraud used a photo of Nipper listening to a 
phonograph but this seems to be a misinterpretation of "the photograph" 
discussed by Frank Andrews (in Petts, 1983). The most likely answer is 
that Barraud used a photo of Nipper, sitting alone, and a phonograph 
which he either owned or borrowed. Of one thing we can be confident - 
Barraud probably didn't know how a phonograph worked - the phonograph in 
the original painting has the horn turned through 180° and Nipper is 
facing the back of the machine.

All the best,
Anton