Cornet, [B-flat missing], G [high pitch] or A-flat

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Cornet, [B-flat missing], G [high pitch] or A-flat

Maker Gustave Auguste Besson

Date1852 ca.

Place MadeParis, France, Europe

Serial No.none

SignedStamped on bell: GB / BESSON / Breveté / 7 RUE DES / 3 COURONNES / A PARIS.
MarkingsStamped on second valve casing within oval frame: GB [? very faded] / BREVETÉ
Stamped on valve casings, upper valve caps and pistons, respectively: 19, 20, 21
Stamped on lower valve caps, respectively: 19, 20, 8 (not original).
DescriptionBrass, double loop, main tuning slide at second bow, removable leadpipe (crook, shank lost), three Périnet valves (1, ½, 1½), top-sprung, spring inside hollow stem, alignment by internal horizontal pin with differently-sized ends, locked through slots in stem; brass pistons, modèle français, windway 3-2-1

The only surviving crook can either be interpreted as high-pitch G or low pitch A-flat. Shanks for B-flat and A, and perhaps further crooks do not survive.

The valves resemble French patent no. 13879 from 1852 with amendments from 1853 by Charles Edme Rödel, Besson's piston maker.
DimensionsHeight: 337 mm
Tube length: 1209 mm, 1527 mm
Bore diameter (initial, minimum, tuning slide, valve slides): 11.6 mm, 10.3 mm, 11.5 mm, 11.6 mm
Bore diameter (crook, initial, minimum): 9.4 mm, 8.4 mm
Bell diameter: 124 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1991 from Tony Bingham, London, England.
Published ReferencesSabine Katharina Klaus, Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 4: The Heydey of the Cornet (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2022), pp. 28-30, 265.

Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999

Object number07046

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