A
Virtual Art Exhibit Dedicated to Nipper
NipperArt is a gallery
featuring artwork related to Nipper, the Terrier that was the
trademark for the Victor Talking Machine Company and its later
RCA incarnation. The original painting of this part Bull Terrier,
part Fox Terrier dog listening to an Edison Bell Phonograph
was rejected by Edison's British company, but Nipper did get
a new machine to listen to in a revised painting which would
become one of the most recognized product images in the history
of advertising.
The earliest Nipper
advertisements were noted in a November
1901 "letter to the editor" of the Edison trade
magazine The Phonogram with the writer pointing out that
this was essentially product misrepresentation since the dog
couldn't be listening to "His Masters' Voice" because,
unlike the Phonograph, owners of the gramophone couldn't make
records on their talking machines.
The rest, of course, is history
as the disc record became the dominant format, the Victor Talking
Machine Company became the largest phonograph company in the
world, and Nipper became an icon inspiring
cartoons, parodies and other derivitive creations for over a
century.
Dog
Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph (Original)
Artist:
Francis Barraud, 1898
Media:
Oil on canvas, 36" x 28"
Description:
The original painting by Francis Barraud displayed an Edison
Bell Phonograph as the featured talking machine.
Dog
Looking at and Listening to a Phonograph (revised with gramophone)
Artist:
Francis Barraud, 1898
Media:
Photograph
Description: Francis
Barraud revised his Phonograph painting with what was to become
known as "His Master's Voice"
Leonard Petts, author of the Story
of Nipper and the 'His Master's Voice' picture (published
for The Talking Machine Review International, 1973), quotes
Alfred Clark (Managing Director of the Gramophone Company in
1935) as follows: "He (Francis Barraud) took it to a company
then prominent in the sale of wax cylinder phonographs, to see
whether they were interested enough to acquire it. They did
not seem at all impressed by the originality and beauty of the
picture, but asked for more time to think it over."
Barraud replaced the cylinder
machine (an Edison commercial model) with a brass horn and a
talking machine supplied by The Gramophone Company. Johnson's
company then purchased the updated picture.
The
Moorestown, New Jersey Nipper's, Roots of Nipper
Artist:
Margaret Ingersoll, c. 2005
Media:
Paint on fiberglass
Sponsor:
Lockheed Martin
Click
on this Nipper to see the entire Nipper exhibition
Photographs
courtesy of Nipper 2005
The 14-foot stained-glass window,
one of four originally in the tower of the Victor Company’s
headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, on display in the Ray
Dolby Gateway to Culture Wing at the Smithsonian's National
Museum of American History. (Courtesy
of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and
Jaclyn Nash).
A Nipper Sighting
Walking down
a Luzem, Switzerland street in 2006, Doug Fink, a Friend
of the Phonograph, photographed this painting of Nipper.
Nipper, The
Flatwater Folk Art Museum, Brownville, NE
"Little Nipper" Point
of Sale Display for RCA Victor 45 RPM record player and "Little
Nipper" Record Albums, 1949 (PM-1975)
First
Recorded Sighting of the Big Nipper
Artist:
Sheila O'Hara, Oakland, CA, 1987
Media:
Woven tapestry, 32.5" x 19.5"
Location:
Private Collection (FP1034)
Gramomobil
Artist:
Unknown
Media:
Color postcard, Berlin, 4 1/4" x 5 3/4"
His
Master's Voice
Artist:
Anne van Wijk, Amsterdam, 1988
Media:
Collage, color postcard, 4 1/2" x 5 3/4"
His
Master's Voice - You are the Girl for Me
Artist:
Unknown
Media:
Postcard, circa 1912
His
Master's Voice (with Apologies)
Artist:
Tom Brown, Publisher: Davidson Bros.
Media:
Postcard, circa 1903
Comic Header from "And Her
Name Was Maud!" by Fred Opper
Comic Supplement of the Boston
American, July 9, 1905 by the American Journal-Examiner
(Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics)
1908 Campaign Button
- Bryan vs. Taft (Courtesy Heritage
Auctions)
Hearing
Artist:
A.E. Kennedy
Media:
Postcard, circa 1911
His
Master's Voice - Back cover of Consolidated Talking Machine
Co. Catalogue
Artist:
Francis Barraud, c.1901
Media:
Embossed color paper, 4" x 6", 38 pages
Front
cover of Consolidated Talking Machine Co. catalogue
Re-creation
of His Master's Voice at the South Pole
Artist:
Unknown
Media:
Photograph, b-w
Scott's
Antartica Expedition replaced the fox terrier with a husky
listening to "His Master's Voice."
Home
Music Voice
Artist:
Unknown, c.1920
Media:
Litho on tin
HMV
imitation with chicken replacing Nipper
The
Success Sausage Machine
Artist:
Unknown, c.1905
Postcard
Temperance and Prohibition,
His Master's Voice, 1904 (Courtesy of Ohio
State University) (from Prohibition Cartoons by D.F. Stewart
and H.W. Wilbur, Defender Publishing Company, 1904
His Master's Voice
- William Jennings Bryan running again in 1908
Title: His Master's Voice
Publisher: Schnabel Cliche
Druk
Publication Date: 1925
Illustrator: Lawson Wood
(Clarence Lawson Wood was born in Highgate, London in
1878)
Cartoon by Chon Day
from The New Yorker, 1954
Hi-Fi Comes
to the Boob Tube - May 15, 1970 Life magazine
Nipper
with Television
Artist:
Unknown, c.1985
Media:
Ink on Paper
Worldly
Wit
Artist:
Unknown, 1988
Media:
Ink on Paper (newspaper cartoon)
.
His
Master's Visage
Artist:
Stereo Review, October 1978
"Cool
Tunes" by Clarence Brown, Saturday Review, August
1979
(This illustration accompanies
an article about an LP available from Syntonics™ of a "Country
Thunderstorm" and an "Alpine Blizzard" which
dry off your brow as you listen to them patter and sough coolly
in the background." (4)
Source: "Records:
The Ghost of Budapest Bygone" Record review by Alan Rich,
New York magazine, October 22, 1979
.
Not
a word!
Artist:
Unknown
Media:
Postcard
A
cat takes the place of Nipper in this postcard that depicts a
cat waiting to hear something (instead of Nipper listening to
his master's voice). The
card also features two double-meaning phonograph related phrases:
you've 'broken the record" and "I'm winding up"
Frank
and Ernest
Artist:
Bob Thaves, 9-3-1988
Newspaper cartoon
His
Master's Voice Mail
Artist:
Mike Peters, 11-13-1993
Media:
Newspaper cartoon
His
Master's Voice and Company
Artist:
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, c.1901
Courtesy:
grammophone.ch
"Their
Master's Voice," ©Michael Sowa
Advertising
Revealed
Artist:
Hillary B. Price, November 23, 2003
His
Master's Vice
Artist:
Unknown, c.1905
This
postcard is one of many Nipper parodies that removed the "o"
in "Voice," to create "His Master's Vice."
Many of these
cards featured Nipper and the whiskey bottle. This card actually
depicts multiple vices. But
since Nipper represented the "World's Greatest Music,"
isn't it natural that these other vices would join Nipper to complete
the trilogy of "Wine, Women and Song?"
Color
Management for Photographers
Artist:
Unknown, c. 2005
Media:
Bookcover
A Nipper-like
dog watches and listens to music on a computer...the new
master of the 21st century.
.
His
Master's Voice
Media: Color
postcard shaped like Nipper c.2005
Master
Your Music
Artist:
Unknown, 2006
Media:
PC Magazine, August 22, 2006
Homage
to Nipper, listening to an Apple video iPod
Old
Records Go In, CDs Come Out
Artist:
Stuart Goldenberg, 2006
Media:
Newspaper illustration (New York Times August 17)
January 26,
2007 Courtesy of Royston Robertson for the cover of Prospect
magazine
January 9,
2008 Courtesy of Royston Robertson
March 2008
Courtesy of Royston Robertson for the cover of Prospect
magazine
June 30, 2009
Courtesy of Royston Robertson
Pathe
Marconi
Artist:
Unknown
Media:
Advertisement reprint on canvas, 8" x 10"
Amazon and
Nipper, June 2016
Dog
in Car sticker 4" x 4"
from Kanazawa Phonograph Museum, Ishikawa, Japan - gift
of Peter and Joellen Lippett 2019
Dog's
Dinner by Pete McKee from his
Thud, Crackle, Pop 2016 collection - Print
available for purchase
Radio
Apocalypse, Alternate Cover Art
by Megan Hutchison-Cates, 2021 Issue No. 1
A Nipper Sighting,
2021
Visiting The
National Neon Sign Museum at The Dalles, Oregon, Friends
of the Phonograph Peter and Joellen Lippett spotted
Nipper.
For Additional
Nipper Parodies in Popular Culture see The
Victor Talking Machine Company
Phonographia
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