gathayer1

Hello fellow Trumpet players. I am new to this forum, and I am trying to identify if this is a rare trumpet or not. I have a Silver French Besson (b flat) trumpet that I purchased ~1980. I was told it was a special trumpet at the time. Here are the specs:

Silver French Besson Trumpet
The serial # is 97338
Systeme Prototype
FB
F. Besson
Brevete
S.G.D.G.
96 Rue D' Angouleme
Paris
(5 pointed star)
66 Hautes Recompenses
6 Grands Prix
Hor Concours
Membre Du Jury
Made in France

On the center valve:
F.Besson
(5 pointed star)
6th S.G.D.G.
97335

Can anyone tell me anything about this? Any information would be helpful. Thank you. Glen

MFfan

A French Besson list stops at 92000 ser number and 1947. So ,I would say yours may be a few years after that. You might look at the Besson photos, a part of the Besson section , on Horn-u-copia site. There may possibly be a photo you can match. Paul Ayick's site also has photos of his Bessons, etc. There are other Besson threads on this forum and TH you could check for more history and ideas.

gathayer1

Thanks for the reply. The odd part about my search (so far) is that I had assumed that 92K up to 100K were meha's, but my trumpet has no mesa marking on it (or repair markings whatsoever). It has all of the markings of a French made horn, and I thought all trumpets after 92K and post 1945) were pieced together, built, or repaired elsewhere. I will check the sites you said, and will also display pics when I have a chance.

Schwab

Here is some info from Larry Gianni:

Dylan Schwab - French Besson History

Mehas and Brevetes were made in France until 100K when production moved to London.

Your horn, while probably very good, is not terribly rare and unfortunately people don't pay a lot for them. There is a MEHA on ebay right now that is probably pre-war that is selling for well under a grand.

__________________
Dylan Schwab
Stage 1 New York

gathayer1

After doing more research, I put the date at 1948-1949 based on close serial numbers, and I think it has a bore of .460. Since the serial #'s are somewhat vague after 92K, I think that is the best I can do with the the info I have. Thanks for all of your help. Glen

Flugelnut

Sorry to (unintentionally) confuse you but I have a French Besson flugel with exactly the same markings as your trumpet, with serial number 97705, which according to its first owner was bought new in 1967 or 1968.
Assuming that Besson, like I think all makers, didn't number by instrument type but just in building sequence this info doesn't fit with yours.

malcolmd

Glen-
I have a trumpet with the exact same markings you describe, SN 101010 that I purchased brand new in Shreveport, LA. in about 1967. It is in a faux alligator case, dark brown.

FrenchBesson

If the third valve ring is under, I would say post war French made. If the ring is on top and it hasn't been changed I would need a picture. Descent horn.

Schwab

This thread is a year old, so I changed the link about F. Besson history in my above post so it works.

I've had two pre-war MEHAs, one was played by Bob Peck of the original Glenn Miller band. It had the ring on the bottom of the third slide, so I don't know if that is a good way to date the horns.

The other was one of the rare .460 MEHAs talked about in the article, a good friend of mine has that horn now. I'm glad I know where it went, it is really great.

__________________
Dylan Schwab
Stage 1 New York

nieuwguyski

Henri Selmer & Sons didn't number by building sequence. I've owned two K-Modified cornets with 4-digit serial numbers that would have dated them to the '30s -- almost 20 years before the K-Modified models were introduced. It may be a stretch to generalize to all French instrument makers, but maybe it's a national tradition to run separate serial number sequences for different instrument types.

__________________
John N. Nieuwguyski