The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Thanks to a wanted ad I placed on this board, I recently arranged purchase of a magnificent 42" tall papier-mache, glass-eyed, anatomically-correct (after all, it is His Master's Voice) 'Nipper' produced by the Old King Cole Papier Mache Company of Canton, Ohio. I was wondering if there has been any research done on the history of this company and what else they may have made besides Nippers? I wonder if there are any papier-mache companies in business today producing anything (besides pinatas)? Also, what do I feed it?





John M

Very cool John, and the manufacturers label makes all the difference between a good & bad investment.
Well done!

JOhn,

Looks like a great find. Perhaps when you get time you can post some more pictures of him. I'm sure he will look good on display!

John,

I agree with Valecnik—it definitely appears to be a great find.


I just did some cursory research and came up with this on the Vintage Disney Collectibles blog:

Old King Cole was a Disney licensee from 1935 to 1942. Based in Canton, Ohio, the company made absolutely wonderful point-of-sale static and mechanical store displays constructed of papier-mâché.

The beautiful bas relief advertising sign in this post was once owned by legendary vintage Disney collector Bernie Shine. The sign measures a whopping five feet wide by three feet tall and was offered for sale in Kay Kamen’s 1935 Christmas Promotion manual.

I’ll see if I can’t find any other information on their company history.


I would assume that there are, but I have yet to do any research on it, so do not take this as having any factual basis. I’ll look into it more once I finish up the Edison manual I was turning into a PDF—I have the OCR cleaned up now, and just need to do a bit of editing on the diagrams and the logo and the final typesetting. I should have that done today, I think.


I suggest that you consult a papier-mâchéologist...do we have one in the house?

— MordEth

Here's three more photos the seller sent me . . . he has been nicely restored by Joan Rolfs. I did a little Googling and found out more about Old King Cole.







I'm not a Nipper collector at all, but this one will be on display in my little museum in Indiana starting this spring (if there's anything left when we return from Florida after an ice storm and today's 70mph winds!)

John M

John and guys -

I have never been able to find an original ad. It would be in the 1914 or later "Voice of Victor" magazine. However here is a copy. It is the application to puchase one of these. It was a whopping $10!!!!! I wish they would still sell them for that.....

Enjoy!

Lovely dog. Congratulations!

About 4 years ago I missed a great opportunity to buy a pristine papier mache Nipper from Old King Cole Co. It hadn't been restored and it was on Ebay so I put it into my Ebay Watch.

Much to my amazement, it was still only $200 with minutes to go so I left it worrying that it must have had some defect that other buyers had noticed or maybe it was a Chinese fake or something. It sold for about $220 in the end which seemed like an absolute bargain to me for an original one. I've seen them go for as much as $750!

I later found out that it was 100% correct, so I was kicking myself for a while after that. This was on Ebay.com too so I would have thought the American buyers would've known what they were doing, but maybe not that particular week, it might seem?

Or maybe the Old King Cole Nippers are not sought after much in the US? Have all Victor collectors already got one? That is a distinct possibility, I suppose.

Mark,
Sorry for the delay in reply, but we've been traveling and getting set up for the next fair . . . we are out of the Everglades and back into 'civilization' on the 'Treasure Coast' (we prefer the 'Glades). Anyway, thank you for posting that ad! I have never seen that before! Absolutely great!
John M

For some reason, I guess I was thinking that he was hollow, but that Nipper must be pretty solid based on the shipping weight listed on the advert that Mark posted.

Also, in case anyone hasn’t seen this, apparently Nipper was not the only canine advertising figure made by the Old King Cole Papier Mâché Company; they also made the Crosby Radio Pup.

Has anyone else found any other of their creations online?

— MordEth

Nipper is hollow...... I think that the weight was from the massive wood create that was made to protect him during shipment..... They didn't have the caring handlers that we have today with carriers like UPS and FedEx....

Mark