"His Master Voice" RCA

Not everyone would be able to name him, but Nipper the dog is one of the most widely recognised advertising images worldwide. With various modifications to the precise image as fashions have changed, Nipper has been used in advertising since 1900 to endorse companies such as His Master’s Voice (HMV), JVC and RCA.

Nipper was born in Bristol in 1884 where he lived with his owner Mark Barraud. When Barraud died in 1887, his brothers continued to care for Nipper and one of them, Francis, painted a picture from a photograph taken of Nipper listening to a phonograph. The picture was painted posthumously and so Nipper himself did not experience fame, although he did move from Bristol to live with Francis and is buried in Kingston on Thames. At the time of his burial it was a small park, but it is now the site of a bank; there is a plaque inside.

When living with his original owner, Nipper’s home was the Prince’s Theatre, Bristol and there is a small statuette nearby as a reminder. It is not only in Bristol that Nipper has memorials; most of them are in the United States, including one weighing four tons at the former RCA building in Albany, New York.

For some reason there is some doubt as to what breed Nipper was. It seems reasonable to assume, from the Nipper phonograph painting, that he was a Jack Russell, but because the painting itself is a copy of the original, which is taken from a photograph (created when he was living with his original owner in Bristol), we cannot be sure.

http://www.minutemanbristol.com/graphic-design-nipperthedog.html