Nipper (c. 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 an international entertainment trademark, with Nipper's likeness used across record labels, consumer electronics and entertainment retail.
Life Nipper was born in 1884 in Bristol, England, and died in September 1895. 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, or possibly "part Bull Terrier". He was named Nipper because he would often "nip" at the backs of visitors' legs. Nipper originally lived with his owner, Mark Henry Barraud, in the Prince's Theatre where Barraud was a scenery designer. 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.
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. He had recalled that Nipper had often appeared "puzzled ... to make out where the voice came from" when a phonograph was playing. Barraud worked from an old photo of Nipper. 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". 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 (equivalent to £10,627 in 2025) – half for the copyright and half for the physical painting itself. 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.
The Gramophone Company initially used Nipper's likeness on its gramophones but did not begin using the image on its record labels until 1909. The HMV retail shop used the trademark on its signage, beginning 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. The trademark was also utilized by Victor's Japanese division and remains in use by JVC.
Legacy
As time progressed, Nipper's gravesite 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 15 August 1984, understood to be near to the resting place. An additional plaque was placed on the wall inside the entrance to the bank, referencing the one outside. Nipper's likeness has been reproduced on a myriad of advertising and promotional items, including pocket watches, wristwatches, clocks, salt and pepper shakers, paperweights, cigar lighters, stuffed toys, coin banks, drinkware, coffee mugs, posters, calendars, beach towels, T-shirts, neckties cufflinks, belt buckles and hats. These advertising items have long been popular collectables. In 1984, New York Times writer Hans Fantel described his early childhood impression of Nipper:
"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."
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. Real dogs played the roles of Nipper and Chipper, but Chipper had to be replaced much more frequently, since his character is a puppy. 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. On 10 March 2010, a small road near to the dog's final resting place in Kingston upon Thames was officially named Nipper Alley.
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