Nipper

Nipper is the dog made famous by RCA Victor. There are thousands of images of Nipper listening for "His Master's Voice" from as many different machines. The first image of Nipper is that of him listening to a cylinder machine, but later RCA altered the original painting (painted by Francis Barraud two years after his dog had died) to suite their advertising. This alteration was much in style even in the Edison camp as that company completely re-vamped the "old man" listening to their phonograph.

In my Nipper collection, apart from print, there are two ceramic salt and pepper shakers of Nipper himself, a set including Nipper and the Record machine (plastic), and a 12" and 7" reproduction (presently listening to my Edison Standard!). The salt and pepper shakers were noted premiums that RCA gave away with purchases. There is said to be a rare salt and pepper set with Nipper standing on all four legs. This is said to be the only instance of Nipper in any position other than his usual "listening" pose. The photos are pretty bad but here you go...


There are volumes of photos and etchings of Nipper to be found in any of the more readily available books on RCA Victor, old music, or even advertising. To see the best Nipper site yet, check out Nipperscape...it is awesome!