On July 18, 1877, Thomas Edison invented the first phonograph, which used a stylus-tipped carbon transmitter to make impressions on a strip of paraffin paper. When he pulled the paper back along the stylus, it reproduced the original recorded sound. On this date, it was Edison himself reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
This set, more picturesque, I’m sure, than Edison’s original invention, features the famous terrier Nipper, listening to his master’s voice on the gramophone. Nipper, who lived from 1884 to 1895 in Bristol, England, was so named because he liked to nip at visitors’ legs. The familiar portrait of Nipper and the phonograph was painted by his last owner, Francis Barraud, three years after Nipper’s death. Barraud copyrighted the image and offered it to the Edison-Bell Company’s James E. Hough, who responded, “Dogs don’t listen to phonographs.” The Gramophone Company later bought the painting, and a modified version became the well-known trademark of RCA-Victor and HMV.
This set from my mother’s collection has the mark “© SDD” on the bottom of the gramophone, which stands for Sarsaparilla Deco Designs, in existence under that name from 1976 to 1997. SDD seems to have had its heyday in the 1980s, and I have a good many of its shakers from that period. This is a set of novelty, character, go-withs, though SDD’s work includes other forms as well, like nesters.
Set #13
Please Past the Salt 