Nipper
The famous painting of 'His Master's Voice' is one of the world's most recognized and best loved trademarks. Nipper, the fox terrier who sits listening to the gramophone with an intelligent and rather puzzled expression, was a stray dog found in 1884 by Mark Barraud, a scenic artist at the Prince's Theatre, Bristol. When Mark died three years later, the dog was passed to his brother Francis, also a talented artist, who later painted the picture known as 'His Master's Voice'. In its original form, the picture showed the dog listening to a phonograph (a cylinder machine) with a black horn. This version was submitted for copyright by Francis Barraud on 11th February 1899 under the title 'Dog Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph'.
Barraud showed the picture to several publishers and to a phonograph manufacturer but they showed little interest in it. A friend then suggested that he could make the picture more attractive by replacing the black horn with a brass one, so he called at the offices of The Gramophone Company in Maiden Lane hoping to borrow one. When Barraud showed the Manager, William Barry Owen, a photograph of his painting, Owen offered to buy it if Barraud replaced the phonograph with a gramophone. Although Nipper was already dead by then, the artist made the changes and the revised painting was delivered to the offices of The Gramophone Company on 17th October 1899. Barraud received two payments of £50 each. The first gave the company sole reproduction rights, while the second transferred Barraud's copyright to The Gramophone Company Ltd. Nipper made his first appearance on advertising literature on the British Record Supplement for January 1900. Thereafter he appeared on needle tins, sales promotion novelties and Company literature including letter headings. He was first used on a British record label in February 1909. Francis Barraud died in his 69th year on 29th August 1924, having painted some 24 copies of his most famous work, commissioned by the Gramophone and Victor Companies for their branch offices around the world. The precise dates of Nipper's birth and death are not known but evidence suggests that he was born in 1883 or 1884. He died in 1895 and was buried in a garden at Kingston-Upon-Thames. A plaque now commemorates the site.
In the United States and Canada, 'His Master's Voice' was first registered as a trademark in 1900 by Emile Berliner, the inventor of the flat disc record. The following year the copyright passed to the Victor Talking Machine Company, who extended it to Central and South America, the Far East and Japan. This division of trademark ownership persists to the present day.
