Nipper the RCA dog: the true story behind the trademark
See the real story – guest starring your dog.
You're about to meet the small terrier behind one of the world's most recognized logos. Nipper was a real dog who lived in England in the late 1800s, and his portrait, painted after his death, became the His Master's Voice trademark. He never actually posed for a gramophone, since the painting that made him famous was finished three years after he died, and it first showed a different machine altogether. Here is what the record actually supports, and where the popular legend pulls away from it.
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The story in 5 parts
A short version first. The full story, with every detail, is further down.
Part 1
Who Nipper really was
Nipper was born in 1884 in Bristol, England, and belonged to Mark Barraud, a scenery designer at a theatre there.
Part 2
The painting that started it all
Three years after Nipper died, Francis Barraud, Mark's brother who had taken the dog in, painted him listening to an Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph.
Part 3
How the image became a trademark
Barraud first offered the painting to the Edison-Bell company, but its representative reportedly said dogs do not listen to phonographs.
Part 4
Fact from myth about Nipper
You may have heard that Nipper was listening to a recording of his dead master's voice, as if he somehow recognized Mark Barraud's voice from beyond the grave.
Part 5
Nipper's legacy today
Nipper's original burial spot in Kingston upon Thames is now built over by a branch of Lloyds Bank, though a plaque and Nipper Alley mark the area.
Read the full story
Part 1
Who Nipper really was
Nipper was born in 1884 in Bristol, England, and belonged to Mark Barraud, a scenery designer at a theatre there. You might picture a purebred dog behind such a famous image, but Nipper was a mixed terrier, likely part fox terrier and part bull terrier rather than one recognized breed. He got his name because he liked to nip at the backs of visitors' legs. Nipper died in September 1895, at around ten or eleven years old, and was buried in Kingston upon Thames.
Part 2
The painting that started it all
Three years after Nipper died, Francis Barraud, Mark's brother who had taken the dog in, painted him listening to an Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. Barraud recalled that Nipper often looked puzzled trying to work out where the voice from the machine was coming from, and that memory became the idea behind the painting. He worked from an old photograph of the dog, since Nipper was no longer alive to sit for the portrait. Barraud later painted over the phonograph with a Berliner disc gramophone, at the request of the Gramophone Company.
Part 3
How the image became a trademark
Barraud first offered the painting to the Edison-Bell company, but its representative reportedly said dogs do not listen to phonographs. He then took the picture to the Gramophone Company's offices to borrow a brass horn and brighten it up, and the company's manager, William Barry Owen, offered to buy it if Barraud replaced the phonograph with one of their disc gramophones. Barraud agreed, repainted the machine, and sold the picture and its copyright to the Gramophone Company for one hundred pounds. The image later reached the United States when Emile Berliner registered it there as a trademark, and Eldridge Johnson used it heavily for the Victor Talking Machine Company, which later became RCA Victor.
Part 4
Fact from myth about Nipper
You may have heard that Nipper was listening to a recording of his dead master's voice, as if he somehow recognized Mark Barraud's voice from beyond the grave. That story is called a false rumor rather than a documented fact. What is actually recorded is that Francis Barraud remembered Nipper reacting with a puzzled, attentive expression to sounds coming from a phonograph he owned, not to any specific recording of Mark's voice. The emotional legend of a grieving dog listening for his master traveled further than the plainer truth of a curious dog and a new machine.
Part 5
Nipper's legacy today
Nipper's original burial spot in Kingston upon Thames is now built over by a branch of Lloyds Bank, though a plaque and Nipper Alley mark the area. A large fibreglass statue of Nipper, twenty-eight feet tall, stands on the roof of a former RCA building in Albany, New York. The image has also been used by JVC and by HMV shops. If you keep an eye out, you can still spot Nipper's tilted head wherever people remember the early days of recorded sound.
Questions people ask
Was Nipper a real dog?
Yes, Nipper was a real dog, born in 1884 in Bristol, England, and he died in September 1895.
What breed was Nipper the RCA dog?
Nipper was not a single recognized breed; he was a mixed terrier, most likely part fox terrier and part bull terrier.
Why is Nipper listening to a gramophone in the painting?
The painting originally showed Nipper listening to a cylinder phonograph, but the Gramophone Company asked the artist to repaint it as one of their disc gramophones before buying the picture.
Did Nipper really hear his owner's recorded voice?
That popular claim is described as a false rumor rather than a documented fact. What is recorded is that Nipper reacted with a puzzled expression to sounds from a phonograph the artist owned.
Where is Nipper buried?
Nipper was buried in Kingston upon Thames, at a spot now occupied by a branch of Lloyds Bank, marked by a nearby plaque and Nipper Alley.
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Sources
- Nipper - Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org.
- Nipper and His Master’s Voice – Huguenot Museum. huguenotmuseum.org.
- HMV dog is in Kingston-upon-Thames. The Thames Path by Leigh Hatts, Jan 15, 2013.
- The History of Nipper and His Master's Voice. www.erikoest.dk.
- Remembering His Master’s Voice. Meador Manor, Dec 5, 2023.
- Nipper: The Dog Behind His Master’s Voice | Dogs in History. Dogs in History.
- From Devoted Terrier to International Icon: The Story of Nipper - The Birthplace of Country Music. The Birthplace of Country Music, Aug 26, 2018.
- RCA Victor. Around and Around, Aug 29, 2024.
Written by TimeWalkies EditorialLast updated How we research