hanklr

Hi all. I am new to the group. I started playing trumpet again and want to get some info on a besson I own.
. I happen to have a silver plated Meha 101395 and I wonder if It is a French made Besson. It has black plastic valve guides and thin black plastic washers as bumpers for the third valve slide. The 2nd slide bore measures .467. The 2nd valve casing has the oval with F. BESSON then the star and below that B. S.G.B.G.. The bell is stamped:
*
PARIS-FRANCE
F. BESSON
MEHA
FABRICATION FRANCAISE
PERFECTIONEE
*
Thanks,
Henry

MFfan

Welcome to Forum! Here is the Besson Loyalist site which should help you out. There are indications by the bell lettering it would be Kanstul made.
The Besson Loyalist

The Besson MEHA Story - Vintage Trumpets

__________________
Dave Rafferty
Lemar Trumpet (peashooter-Conn?)
Lyrical Trumpet (Tokan)

Besson 609 Trumpet
1955-60 Besson 8-10 Trumpet
1948 Besson cornet
1946 King Master Cornet
www.kalamazooconcertband.org

Dupac

I can translate:
PARIS-FRANCE
F.BESSON
MEHA
MADE IN FRANCE
SOPHISTICATED WORK
And it is not B. S.G.B.G, but B. S.G.D.G ; it means "patented without the protection of the (French) government".

__________________
Music is the healing force of the Universe.
Albert Ayler.

Voltrane

and the "B." stands for "Breveté" (and as Dupac wrote, it means "Patented". Nothing else, not a special model).
By the way, I have always been intrigued by the fact the English Besson I have (Cornet and trumpet) have "Breveté" and not "Patented" engraved on the valve block. Could it mean the valve block of English Besson were made in France? Or was "Breveté" used, with the time, like a kind of brand by Besson?
Regards.
Marc

Cornet1

The 'brevete' pn English made Besson instruments is historical. Originally, Besson was a French company that set up an English factory becasue of a greater demand for brass in England. When the English company bacame the larger with its own designs the brevete was kept as a tradition. It was found on English Bessons up to the end of real Besson in 1975, by which time English Besson designs were among the best in the world.

MFfan

My English Besson trumpet and cornet also have the Bevete' stamp also. If you haven't joined Horn-u-copia, please do so , to review the confusing, but valuable Besson info there, both French the English. My view is that Brevete' designation was a carryover from when production for the English market was started in 1857 and provided some sort of panache' of being somewhat connected to the original French, while having to be stamped "made in England" by some government requirement.
I know at some point, English makers had to stamp their instruments were made by all English parts.

__________________
Dave Rafferty
Lemar Trumpet (peashooter-Conn?)
Lyrical Trumpet (Tokan)

Besson 609 Trumpet
1955-60 Besson 8-10 Trumpet
1948 Besson cornet
1946 King Master Cornet
www.kalamazooconcertband.org

hanklr

Thanks for the replies. However, I have been trying to determine if this horn is french or english for several years. I have been on the sites mentioned in the replies as well as others and the Kanstul Mehas described and pictured have 4 or 5 digit ser.#s and a K somewhere on the horn, and most have the large script letter B on the bell. I don't know if I'll ever get a definitive answere but i'll try a little longer.
Thanks,
Henry Rancourt