Tenor valve and slide trombone, B-flat, high pitch / low pitch
Maker
F. Besson
Distributor
Carl Fischer
Date1886-1887 ca.
Place MadeLondon, England, Europe
ModelPrototype
Serial No.37411
SignedStamped on bell: 40 MEDALS OF HONOUR (in banners) / FB (monogram) / F. BESSON / “Prototype” / 198 EUSTON ROAD / LONDON / [five-pointed star] / C. FISCHER / 64TH AV. N.Y. / SOLE AGENT. U. STATES.MarkingsStamped on valve casings, respectively: 9 [8] 7
Stamped within an oval on second valve casing: F. BESSON / [star] / BREVETEE / 37411
Stamped on slide receiver: 411
DescriptionBesson produced several examples of this combination slide and valve trombone at precisely the same time as the C. G. Conn company in Elkkhart, Indiana, was also experimenting with this combination of valves and slides in a trombone. Neither company made many examples.
Brass. Three top-sprung Perinet piston valves, with also a traditional slide.
DimensionsBell diameter: 6-1/4 in (158 mm)
Primary bore: 0.445 in (11.3 mm)
ProvenanceArne B. Larson Collection, Vermillion, South Dakota, 1979.
Published ReferencesByron Pillow, "Slides and valves on trombones?--Oh, my!" _National Music Museum Newsletter_40, No. 1 (Summer/al 2016): 18-19.
André P. Larson. Catalog of the Nineteenth-Century British Brass Instruments In The Arne B. Larson Collection of Musical Instruments. Ph.D. Dissertation. Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University, 1974, pp. 141-144.
Larry Kitzel, dissertation, page 53, plate 57.
Credit LineArne B. Larson Collection, 1979
Object number00445
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