Letter: Nipper - an ending on a happier note

Sir: Joan Gordon-Thompson (letter, 23 August) is mistaken in her description of the financial transactions between our company and Francis Barraud, the artist who painted Nipper. After selling the original Dog and Gramophone painting to our company, Mr Barraud was commissioned to make 24 replicas between 1913 and 1924. His charge for each copy was pounds 35.

In December 1919, he was paid an annuity of pounds 250 a year, which was raised to pounds 350 in March 1924 - a generous gesture for which Barraud in his old age was deeply grateful.

When Francis died, the company discovered that for some years he had been sending pounds 100 a year to his sister Isabella, who lived in a home in Staffordshire. The company continued this payment until her death in 1929.

Yours faithfully,

RUTH EDGE

Manager

EMI Music Archives

Hayes, Middlesex

23 August