I’m starting a fun new project tomorrow and would love to get the community’s input if you’d be so kind.
I’ve always had a love for the “His Master’s Voice” Nipper painting and RCA logo. My late father had a tiny shadowbox ceramic dog paired with a Hallmark antique copper gramophone which I’ve kept front and center at my music workstation for all the years since his passing.
The other day I got curious and started looking around at full sized 1:1 scale antique Nipper statues. They were produced between 1911 and the early 1930s and I found one I absolutely fell in love with for sale online.
This guy stands 14.5” high. Of course,e he’d need a gramophone, so I took all the seller images, superimposed rulers scaled based upon the single known dimension (his height) and derived the width and depth so I could find a gramophone of comparable scale.
There are a number of replicas out there, which I’ve narrowed down to two options. The first is this antique non-functional but affordable replica of a 1911 HMV Gramophone Monarch Model V. (HMV stands for “His Master’s Voice”) and the piece bears the original RCA logo. Best of all the dimensions look like they’ll be just perfect for Nipper to listen intently to the cone.
The other model is a bit of a risk. I don’t like the style as much, but it is far, far more accurate to the Victor Talking Machine portrayed in the original painting and logo. It is available from two sellers on eBay in India, and there is no information anywhere as they are not official products. This model is 18" high, which shouldn't be too tall for Nipper to still listen.
Researching them I found
several articles published warning potential buyers about these Indian “Crap-O-Phones” which are evidently frankensteined together from various vintage and reproduction parts and bearing a fake RCA logo inferior to the real stamped and serialed labels. But what I’m bearing in mind is that this is not intended to be a functional player - it is purely a display piece for my museum-like home, so this may be a non-issue. Still, at more than twice the price of the Monarch, it’s enough to make me hesitant.
I’ve also picked out a table I found on Craigslist, again working out ideal dimensions for the display, and plan to stage him centered in front of a large window dressed with a theater curtain and tasseled tiebacks with a regal fringed drapery to dress the scene up nice. The full display and table will occupy a 48”wide x 24” deep x 45” high scene which should look really fun in my home.
So what do you think? Take the risk on the Indian hackjob to stay truer to the original painting? Or go with the more handsome 1911 replica and save some cash?
I should note that the actual original painting featured Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph and not a Victor gramophone, but was later modified at Victor's request, so perhaps that grants me a little leeway…
I’m just awaiting an auto repair quote tomorrow so I can be sensible before I make these purchases, but if all goes well I’d like to buy Tuesday afternoon. I’d love to hear what you think, and I promise to publish the finished setup once everything has arrived safely. Thanks, everyone!
Supplemental note: Yes. Yes I know I am insane.