31st May: Nipper the Dog (His Master's Voice)

It was on this date in 1889 that a painting of a small Dog listening to a phonograph was shown to William Barry Owen, general manager of the Gramophone Company in Maiden Lane, London by the painter, Francis Barraud. The dog's name was Nipper and he became the trademark of His Master's Voice record label.

1. Nipper was a mixed-breed dog, probably part Jack Russell, or possibly smooth fox terrier or bull terrier. He was born in Bristol in 1884.
2. He was given the name Nipper because he would bite the backs of visitors' legs.
3. Nipper's first owner wasn't the painter of the picture. The dog initially belonged to Mark Henry Barraud. a scenery designer at the Prince's Theatre. The painter, his brother Francis, took care of the dog after Mark Henry died.
4. The famous picture of Nipper was actually painted three years after the dog had died.
5. In the original picture, Nipper was listening to a phonograph, not a gramophone. Francis had the idea that the picture might be useful to the phonograph company and showed it to them, but the person he showed it to, James E. Hough, missed a trick when he dismissed it as being any use, commenting, "Dogs don't listen to phonographs".
6. William Barry Owen, manager of the Maiden Lane offices of The Gramophone Company, saw the painting's potential and, on condition that Barraud painted out the phonograph and replaced it with a gramophone, offered to buy the painting.
7. The company paid £100 for the picture along with the "His Master's Voice" slogan and the copyright.
8. Nipper died at 11 years old of natural causes. He was buried in a small park in Kingston upon Thames, under a magnolia tree. The site of Nipper's grave is no longer a park, but a branch of Lloyd's Bank. There is a plaque on the wall of the bank commemorating Nipper.
9. There's also a memorial in Nipper's birthplace of Bristol - there is a small statue of him above a doorway in the Merchant Venturers Building. This building is part of the University of Bristol, and stands near the site of the old Prince's Theatre.
10. The advertising icon lives on, with a puppy, Nipper's son, Chipper, being added. Real dogs play the parts in modern day commercials. In 2007, Nipper was replaced temporarily by Gromit, of Wallace and Gromit fame, as part of an advertising campaign for children's DVDs.

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