Editing Nipper (section)

==His Master's Voice==
{{Further|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]]. 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".<ref name="the nipper saga" />

On 31 May 1899, Barraud visited the Maiden Lane offices of [[Gramophone Company|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 [[Emile Berliner|Berliner]] disc [[phonograph|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 ({{inflation|UK|100|1900|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) – half for the copyright and half for the physical painting itself.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Petts |first=Leonard |date=1973 |title=The Story of "Nipper" and the "His Master's Voice" Francis Barraud's painting |journal=Talking Machine Review |isbn=0902338161}}</ref> The original oil painting hung in The Gramophone Company's headquarters, and then in EMI's boardroom in [[Hayes, Hillingdon|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.<ref>{{cite web |date=14 May 2019 |title=Secrets of the EMI Archive – 1 |url=https://www.emiarchivetrust.org/secrets-of-the-emi-archive-1/ |website=[[EMI Archive Trust]]}}</ref>

The [[Gramophone Company]] used Nipper's likeness on its sound equipment, and created the [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] record label in 1909, as well as the [[HMV]] retailer in 1921. The Gramophone Company's American affiliate the [[Victor Talking Machine Company]] (later [[RCA Victor]]), registered the trademark in the United States on 10 July 1900 and beginning in 1901, used Nipper and the gramophone extensively on its products and advertising.<ref>Vaclav Smil, ''Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact'' ([[Oxford University Press]], 2005), p240</ref> The trademark also became popular in Japan, and remains in use by [[JVC]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meador |first=Granger |date=2023-12-05 |title=Remembering His Master’s Voice |url=https://meador.org/2023/12/05/remembering-his-masters-voice/ |access-date=2025-03-18 |website=MEADOR.ORG |language=en}}</ref>{{quote box
| quote = "It is difficult to say how the idea came to me beyond the fact that it suddenly occurred to me that to have my dog listening to the phonograph, with an intelligent and rather puzzled expression, and call it 'His Master's Voice' would make an excellent subject. We had a phonograph and I often noticed how puzzled he was to make out where the voice came from. It certainly was the happiest thought I ever had."

—Francis Barraud<ref name="Rolfs">Rolfs, Joan & Robin. (2007). [http://my.athenet.net/~nipper/page1.html Nipper Collectibles, The RCA Victor Trademark Dog]. Audio Antique LLC, USA. {{ISBN|978-1-932433-82-1}}</ref>
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