Besson Imperial and Besson Soveriegn

[Chuck(G)]

AFAIK, "Imperial" was never used on Besson-labeled instrument, but on "Boosey&Hawkes" labels only. Both are top-of-the-line Boosey manufacture and other than the usual model improvements are quite comparable.

[Alex C]

My understanding of the use of the Imperial and Soverign marques is different and I haven't been able to verify either Chuck G's or my version completely but here's my experience:

My first private instructor was a Besson artist. The Boosey & Hawkes brand was not imported to the US commercially at that time though a number of B&H always got in under the radar. My teacher played the top of the line Besson available at the time, which was an Imperial.

When the Soverign line came out (in the 80"s?), it was the new top of the line and replaced the Imperial. What internet resources I've been able to find said that Besson quit manufacturing the Imperial in 1980.

I have always considred the Imperial to be older and, well, lesser quality than the Soveriegn. Anybody got better info?

[Rick Denney]

...My teacher played the top of the line Besson available at the time, which was an Imperial.

When the Soverign line came out (in the 80"s?), it was the new top of the line and replaced the Imperial. What internet resources I've been able to find said that Besson quit manufacturing the Imperial in 1980.

I have always considred the Imperial to be older and, well, lesser quality than the Soveriegn. Anybody got better info?

The Sovereigns first started appearing in the 70's, but it differed by instrument.

The traditional notion is that the Imperial was the top-of-the-line Boosey and the New Standard the top-of-the-line Besson before the Sovereign came out and was consolidated under the Besson label. But there are too many examples of instruments marked both Besson and Imperial to prove this notion. It would appear to me that the labeling scheme was inconsistently applied, at best.

There was no distinction between the two models. Word is that the engraving was not applied until the end of the process, and there was no distinction made between Bessons and Booseys on the line. There persist the notions that the Booseys were better and reserved for the home market, while the Bessons were exported to the colonies, but these notions are mostly propagated by Boosey owners. My opinion is that there is too much sample variation in B&H output, then and now, to prove such a point.

Thus, the Sovereign was not intended to be a revolutionary new model, but rather a new label for an old model, as a step primarily intended to consolidate the model names under one label.

I have compared my old Besson euphonium (c. 1974) with a modern Sovereign, and the visible differences are: valve buttons, water keys on several valve slides, and half an inch of bell rim. Other than that, they are exactly the same (with the possible exception of the taper on the leadpipe, and, of course, about a thousand dents). They sounded the same, too. Mine even has the large receiver like the Sovereign models.

In summary, the transition from the old Imperial/New Standard nomenclature to the Sovereigns was not done all in one minute. Some things changed before other things, resulting in more than a few hybrid-label models that don't apparently follow the rules.

Rick "whose Besson is not labeled with a model name at all" Denney