# Nipper
**Nipper** was a dog owned by the English painter Francis Barraud (1856–1924), who made him the subject of the 1898 painting *His Master's Voice*. The picture was sold to The Gramophone Company; the U.S. rights later passed from [Emile Berliner](https://www.edgepedia.org/emile-berliner) to the [Victor Talking Machine Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/victor-talking-machine-company), and the image has remained in commercial use for more than a century, marking its 100th anniversary as a trademark.[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) • [2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) • [3](https://moeb.ca/en/exhibitions/happy-birthday-nipper-an-exhibition-with-a-100-year-bite/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| The dog | Nipper (1884–1895), born in Bristol, England; commonly called a fox terrier but probably a terrier mix with bull terrier in him[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) • [5](https://www.rca.com/brand/nipper-chipper) |
| The painting | Completed 1898 by Francis Barraud; registered 11 February 1899 as "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph"[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) • [2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) |
| The sale | £50 for the painting plus £50 for the full copyright to The Gramophone Company, confirmed 4 October 1899[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) |
| The machine change | The original Edison cylinder phonograph was replaced, as a condition of purchase, with a Berliner disc gramophone[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) |
| First US trademark | United States trademark number 34830, secured by Emile Berliner in 1900[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) |
| British trademark | The painting and title registered as a trademark in 1910[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) |
| Current owner (Canada record) | Canadian NIPPER registration assigned to Talisman Brands, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware, effective 31 May 2022[6](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057) |
## The dog and the painting
Nipper was a real dog. He was born in Bristol, England. He chased rats and nipped at ankles, and he is buried in Kingston-Upon-Thames in England.[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) His breed is a recurring point of confusion. Popular accounts identify him as a fox terrier, but the Johnson Victrola Museum describes him as a mixed fox/bull terrier[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/), and RCA's own brand history says he was probably a terrier mix, possibly with bull terrier and even some Jack Russell ancestry[5](https://www.rca.com/brand/nipper-chipper). According to his biographer, he had plenty of bull terrier in him.[7](https://www.akc.org/content/akc-history-archive/articles/high-fidelity-nipper-the-rca-dog/)
Barraud completed the painting in 1898 and registered it on 11 February 1899 under the title "Dog looking at and listening to a Phonograph."[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) In the first version the dog listened to an Edison cylinder-type phonograph.[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) The title "His Master's Voice," under which the image later became famous, was part of the package when the work was sold; one account describes Barraud as paid £100 for the painting, the copyright, and the slogan together.[8](https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/from-devoted-terrier-to-international-icon-the-story-of-nipper/)
## Adoption by the Gramophone Company and Victor
**Rejection, then reworking.** Barraud offered the picture to the Edison-Bell Company, whose executives failed to see how it could help sales; one account records a representative of Britain's Edison-Bell Company disliking the image.[7](https://www.akc.org/content/akc-history-archive/articles/high-fidelity-nipper-the-rca-dog/) • [1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) The painting then gathered dust before a friend of Barraud's suggested it be technically updated; Barraud sketched the newer flat-disk gramophone at the [Gramophone Company](https://www.edgepedia.org/gramophone-company)'s Maiden Lane showroom, and president William Barry Owen bought the amended picture on the spot and hung it in his office.[9](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/23/arts/sound-nipper-he-s-still-all-ears-at-the-age-of-100.html) Barraud himself, quoted in *The Strand*, put the condition plainly: "The manager, Mr Barry Owen asked me if the picture was for sale and if I could introduce a machine of their own make, a Gramophone, instead of the one in the picture."[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) The Gramophone Company agreed to purchase the painting and the copyright on condition that he remove the Edison cylinder player and replace it with their new Gramophone.[10](https://www.sparkmuseum.org/born-to-nip/)
The deal was formalized in the autumn of 1899. The Gramophone Company made Barraud a formal offer on 15 September 1899; he was paid £50 for the painting and a further £50 for the full copyright, with the transaction confirmed on 4 October 1899.[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
**The American rights.** In 1900 Emile Berliner purchased the rights for his National Gramophone Company and secured United States trademark number 34830.[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) E.R. Johnson of the Victor Talking Machine Company then acquired the U.S. rights to the painting from Berliner in 1901.[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) A New York Times account places Johnson's interest earlier in the chain: a natural showman and promoter, he saw the painting at Owen's office and immediately sensed Nipper's commercial appeal, adopting it as Victor's trademark.[9](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/23/arts/sound-nipper-he-s-still-all-ears-at-the-age-of-100.html)
## The logo and its variants
The two national versions of the logo differ because of the machine. The original painting showed an [Edison cylinder phonograph](https://www.edgepedia.org/edison-cylinder-phonograph); the Gramophone Company's purchase required that this be replaced with a Berliner disc gramophone, and the American Victor version depicts that machine.[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) • [1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) In the British original, when viewed in the right light, the original phonograph can still be seen underneath the second layer of paint.[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
The image spread beyond print. In 1915 the designer Nicola D'Ascenzo created four stained-glass Nipper windows at his Philadelphia studio, each 14 feet (4.3 meters) in diameter in nine main panels, installed at the Victor Talking Machine Company headquarters tower in [Camden, New Jersey](https://www.edgepedia.org/camden-new-jersey). The windows were replaced in 1970 and the originals preserved, at the Smithsonian, Rowan University Library, the Camden Historical Society, and the Wolfgram Library at Widener University; the Smithsonian's window was cleaned and restored in 2017.[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) In the 1990 Thomson campaign Nipper was joined by a puppy, first called Little Nipper and later renamed Chipper, shown with modern electronics.[11](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper)
## Trademark history and ownership
The image first appeared on Gramophone Company advertising in January 1900; by 1900, 5,000 printed copies had been sold to dealers at 2s6d (12.5p) each, and the painting and title were registered as a trademark in Britain in 1910.[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) The mark's use by RCA dated to 1929, when that company acquired the Victor Talking Machine Company.[11](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper) Nipper is thus much older than RCA, which was created in 1929.[3](https://moeb.ca/en/exhibitions/happy-birthday-nipper-an-exhibition-with-a-100-year-bite/)
A division of rights shaped the mark's later career. In 1900 Emile Berliner asked Barry Owen to assign him the American copyright of "His Master's Voice," and in 1904 a similar assignment was made for Japan; the loss of these rights later led EMI to create EMI Classics as successor to [His Master's Voice](https://www.edgepedia.org/his-masters-voice).[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
After RCA's consumer-electronics decline, ownership passed through a documented chain of title. [The Canadian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-canadian) registration traces from RCA Limited (registered 1969) through RCA Inc. (1981) and General Electric Canada (2000) to RCA Trademark Management SA (2003), converted in 2009 to a société par actions simplifiée.[6](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057) The NIPPER registration was then assigned from RCA Trademark Management to Talisman Brands, Inc. of Wilmington, Delaware, effective 31 May 2022 and registered 21 July 2022.[6](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057) Thomson closed its consumer electronics division in 2005, effectively ending the reign of RCA consumer electronics; contemporaries saw Nipper as symbolizing "trust, quality, reliability, warmth, and friendliness," but also as "old-fashioned, conservative, and out-of-date."[11](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper)
## By the numbers
- **£50 + £50**: the price of the painting and of the full copyright, confirmed 4 October 1899[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
- **5,000 at 2s6d**: printed copies sold to dealers by 1900, at 2s6d (12.5p) each[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
- **24 replicas**: painted by Barraud for The Gramophone Company over much of his remaining working life, with other artists continuing until the end of the 1920s after his death in 1924[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
- **Trademark no. 34830**: the United States registration secured by Berliner in 1900[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940)
- **1915 windows**: 14 feet (4.3 meters) in diameter, nine main panels, by Nicola D'Ascenzo[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940)
- **1929**: the year RCA acquired Victor and began its use of the mark[11](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper)
- **2005**: Thomson's closure of its consumer electronics division[11](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper)
- **2022**: the effective date of the Canadian assignment to Talisman Brands, Inc.[6](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057)
## Dating and price: where accounts differ
Two details vary across reputable accounts. On the painting's date, the Smithsonian records the original as an 1898 painting,[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) while the Johnson Victrola Museum dates the painting of Nipper listening to "His Master's Voice" to 1899.[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) The 1898 date is backed by the 11 February 1899 registration.[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) On the price, the specialist City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society account gives £50 for the painting plus £50 for the copyright,[2](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html) while the Birthplace of Country Music summary gives £100 total for the painting, copyright, and slogan.[8](https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/from-devoted-terrier-to-international-icon-the-story-of-nipper/) These are consistent on the total and differ only in how the payment is itemized.
## Legacy
Nipper, eventually joined by Chipper, endured as the icon for Victor, RCA, their successors, and their international subsidiaries.[1](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940) Nipper died in 1895, before the painting was sold, and the companies that used his image, the Gramophone Company, Victor, RCA's consumer-electronics business, and Thomson's division, have all passed away or changed hands, while the terrier listening to the horn continues to appear on trademarks more than a century after his death.[4](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/) • [6](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057)
## References
1. [Stained glass window showing RCA's Nipper mascot, Smithsonian National Museum of American History](https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1413940)
2. [Nipper and His Master's Voice, City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society](https://www.cac.org.uk/m100/nipper.html)
3. [Happy birthday Nipper... an exhibition with a 100 year bite, Musée des ondes Emile Berliner](https://moeb.ca/en/exhibitions/happy-birthday-nipper-an-exhibition-with-a-100-year-bite/)
4. [Johnson Victrola Museum History, Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs](https://history.delaware.gov/johnson-victrola-museum/history/)
5. [RCA Nipper & Chipper: The Iconic RCA Dogs & Brand History, RCA](https://www.rca.com/brand/nipper-chipper)
6. [Canadian Trademarks Database: NIPPER — 0177057, Canadian Intellectual Property Office](https://ised-isde.canada.ca/cipo/trademark-search/0177057)
7. [Once Upon a Dog: Nipper, the RCA dog, American Kennel Club history archive](https://www.akc.org/content/akc-history-archive/articles/high-fidelity-nipper-the-rca-dog/)
8. [From Devoted Terrier to International Icon: The Story of Nipper, Birthplace of Country Music](https://birthplaceofcountrymusic.org/from-devoted-terrier-to-international-icon-the-story-of-nipper/)
9. [SOUND; NIPPER — HE'S STILL ALL EARS AT THE AGE OF 100, The New York Times (23 December 1984)](https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/23/arts/sound-nipper-he-s-still-all-ears-at-the-age-of-100.html)
10. [Born To Nip, SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention](https://www.sparkmuseum.org/born-to-nip/)
11. [Where's Nipper? Innovation and Identity in the Consumer Electronics Industry, Hagley Library](https://www.hagley.org/librarynews/sarnoff/wheres-nipper)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Music institutions and events › Record labels and the music industry › Record labels › Major and historic record companies › RCA, Victor, and His Master's Voice*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license