Nipper the dog

[ppppenguin]

We're all familiar with Nipper, the dog on the HMV logo.The story is that Francis Barraud had painted "His Masters Voice" with an Edison cylinder phonograph. He showed the picture to EMI who liked it but wanted the phonograph replaced with an HMV gramophone.

Yesterday Ruth and I were in Piccadilly and noticed this plaque on the Guards and Cavalry Club. For some reason I thought that blue plaques in London (except the City of London) were all done by English Heritage but I was wrong. The British Plaque Trust sounds like something to do with dentists

https://blueplaquesite.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_plaque

Many years ago I visited the EMI archives and was able to handle the gramphone used in the painting. That model isn't too uncommon but seeing and touching the actual gram was a very tangible link to the past.

[peter scott]

The original Nipper.
   

Non-original Nipper. (Scott's Antarctic Expedition)
   

Marking the territory.
   

[Doodlebug]

A bit off topic....
Talking of 'Nipper' reminds me that I built the Worlds smallest TV,
which I named 'The Nipkow Nipper''
It's a mechanical job named  after Paul Nipkow.

The picture is 5/32 inch x 1/8 inch in size "!
http://www.retinascope.co.uk/nipkow.html

   

[ppppenguin]

What a lovely bit of engineering. Totally pointless but so what!

Nobody has pointed out the error in my original post. The Nipper painting was done decased before EMI was formed. It was presented to the Gramophone Company (possibly still the Gramophone and Typrewriter Company). EMI was formed in 1931 from the merger of the Gramophone Company with Columbia Graphophone Company.

The web of UK and US companies that made up EMI and related companies was complex. Look it up if you want to know more. It caused accusations from Baird that EMI was US owned. The EMI Emitron camera tube was strikingly similar to the RCA Iconoscope. It isn't 100% settled as to how much EMI engineers used RCA technology. There was certainly some transfer from US to UK but how much is a difficult question to answer.

[peter scott]

I love it! But should it not be in the "So you think we're a bit crazy" thread?

Peter

[peter scott]

"He showed the picture to EMI who liked it but wanted the phonograph replaced with an HMV gramophone."

   

[ppppenguin]

They say that owners often look like their dogs. No chance here.

The "Dog and trumpet" image is so well known that it has been the basis of many derivative works. I can't find an online reference immediately but Hoffnung did a lovely cartoon where the dog's paws are over its ears.

I will try to track down a photo (c1987?) of Lucien Nunes' father kneeling on top of the massive prewar RGD TV/radio/gram at the Dulwich museum and looking into the horn of the museum's big EMG gramophone horn. Gerry Wells also had a plaster cast dog that had a passing resemblance to Nipper, except that it was looking up, as if sniiffing the underside of something. Don't know if it's still at the musuem,

The other main HMV logo was the "Angel with stylus" or "Recording Angel" Example here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/davewebster14/3568198764/

[Crackle]

I wonder how many people have photographed their dog and other pets in front of a gramophone.

Mike