Business letter and invoice for a phonograph wholesaler enclosed in an illustrated advertising envelope featuring the famous "His Master's Voice" illustration of a dog listening to a recording by B. M. Pierce - 1909

Cleveland, Ohio: The Eclipse Musical Company, 1909. Envelope or Cover. Very good. The letter and invoice address a payment made to the company by a retailer located in Middleton, Ohio. The letterhead reports that the Eclipse Musical Company was the "exclusive distributors of "Everything in Talking Machines and Supplies," and "Jobbers" of Edison Phonograph Records, Victor Talking Machines, and general supplies for cylinder and disc machines. The advertising envelope features an illustration of the famous painting, "His Master's Voice." It is franked with a 2-cent red Washington stamp (Scott #332) tied to the cover with a Cleveland machine postmark dated 1909. All are in nice shape; tiny chip to the bottom right corner of the invoice. In the early days of musical recordings, the word "phonograph" was strictly applied to the cylinder machines produced by Thomas Edison. His largest rival, Emile Berliner, manufactured disc based machines known as Gramophones. "Talking machine" was a generic term used to refer to either disc or cylinder based machines. The famous "His Master's Voice" logo was painted by Francis Barraud and first used by Berliner's Gramophone company, which was based in the United Kingdom. It found immediate favor in Berliner's American subsidiary, the Victor Talking Machine Company, where it was used extensively. According to contemporary Gramophone Company publicity material, the dog, a terrier named Nipper, had originally belonged to Barraud's brother, Mark. When Mark died, Francis inherited Nipper, with a cylinder phonograph and recordings of Mark's voice. Francis noted the peculiar interest that the dog took in the recorded voice of his late master emanating from the horn and conceived the idea of committing the scene to canvas." (see Wikipedia) The Eclipse Musical Company was a large wholesaler of talking machines and related supplies that did especially well selling higher-priced items. (reported in several issues of Talking Machine World, 1908).