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Please help me age my Besson

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:16 pm
by Boomer
New to me horn.

3 valve, Made in England, removable recording bell

Serial 295063

No model number or model name that I can find.

The valves are very helpfully number 1-2-3

Re: Please help my age my Besson

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:41 pm
by Boomer
Thanks,

I should have mentioned, I did a web search, and the number (or anything close to it) did not come up.

That is close to my best SWAG.

Re: Please help my age my Besson

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 2:05 pm
by windshieldbug
According to the Horniman Museum (who published a paper on Besson/Boosey/Boosey & Hawkes serial numbers):

"The British arm of the French company Besson
was bought up by Boosey & Hawkes in the 1940s, and the name was retained for many Boosey &
Hawkes brass instruments until 2002. Brass instruments bearing the Besson name that were
manufactured by Boosey & Hawkes (the UK instruments with serial numbers 185200 - 890008)
can be found in the main Boosey & Hawkes brass instrument sequence."

Assuming it was in the B&H sequence it would be
288450 1959 January
303448 1960 January

Re: Please help my age my Besson

Posted: Sat Dec 14, 2019 4:29 pm
by Boomer
Thanks.

Re: Please help my age my Besson

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 9:12 am
by iiipopes
Other charts put the horn a year or so later, 1960-61:
https://www.saxworx.com/boozy2.htm" target="_blank

Re: Please help me age my Besson

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:19 pm
by Karituba
Does it look like this?

Re: Please help me age my Besson

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 6:43 pm
by Boomer
Pretty much.

I'd have to take it out of the case to do a loop by loop comparison but that's it, the very long third valve slide is what I would consider the most notable feature visually.

Re: Please help me age my Besson

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:21 pm
by iiipopes
Dave Werden's chart also puts the horn @ 1960 or slightly later:
http://www.dwerden.com/blog3/postimages ... umbers.png" target="_blank

While Meyers puts the horn @ late 1959.
https://www.historicbrass.org/edocman/h ... _Myers.pdf" target="_blank