Nipper.

Many years ago, Mrs TD purchased this life sized ornament from a junk shop. He is, of course Nipper, the dog that featured on the HMV recording studio's logo. The pose is not quite right, but you need to be alert to notice that. The original artwork was a painting by Francis Barraud of his brother Mark's smooth coated fox terrier, but was actually copied from a photograph. The original showed the dog with a cylinder phonograph which was playing a recording of Mark's voice after Mark had died; Francis had difficulty selling his picture but HMV finally purchased the copyright for £50, (the painting itself cost another 50) in 1899 on condition that the painting was modified to show their new invention, the disk playing gramophone. Nipper was a Bristolian who died in 1895 (aged 11) so the photograph was a very early one; since Mark worked in the theatre, perhaps he had access to the latest technology and someone to work it.

There's now a bank built on Nipper's grave in Kingston upon Thames with a commemorative plaque on the door and four years ago, a nearby road was named Nipper Alley. The poor dog is carrying a heck of a weight on his shoulders.

This morning was not a very good one, I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to take Herself to the airport, she’s going on holiday to Spain; I’m not sure of the logic here as there are plenty of good quilting holidays to be had in Britain. Anyway, the car park at the airport is rather difficult to find, I ended up at the taxi drop-off point (it costs £1 to get out again); the second time it happened I gave up and she had to carry her own bags to the check-in. The road signage is appalling, planners don’t seem to realise that direction signs are there for people who don’t know where they’re going, in the dark, when it’s raining and there are lots of drivers who know exactly where they are going and don’t like other people getting in their way. I was so annoyed I had difficulty getting back to sleep when I arrived home. I’ve mentioned the incident to several people today who have had similar experiences so it's not that I am an idiot.

It’s been a busy week so I now have some back-blipping to do.