Gustave-Auguste Besson (1820-1874) was a

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

manufacturer and innovator. He created the Besson brand in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, in 1837. Besson is credited with more than 50 original inventions. His alterations to the

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

were particularly notable. Besson's instruments were revolutionary in their design and quality, and as such became famous across Europe. After a series of lawsuits with

Adolphe Sax Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (; 6 November 1814 – 7 February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba, and redesigne ...

, Besson left Paris in 1858 and relocated to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He continued to manufacture instruments in Paris and London and had distribution warehouses in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. After Besson's death in 1874, the company changed its name in France to become Fontaine-Besson in 1880. It remained Besson in Great Britain.

Life

Besson was apprenticed at the age of 10 to an instrument maker called Dujariez in Paris. By the age of 18 he had produced and registered a new model cornet which was universally recognised as a great improvement on all previous instruments of its kind. By 1850 Besson had opened a brand of his business in London at the premises of instrument maker John Pask. In 1858, Besson moved to London and transferred the assets of his firm in France to his wife, Florentine Besson. When Besson died in 1874, the business was continued by his widow and their daughters Cécile and Marthe.

References

1820 births 1874 deaths Businesspeople from Paris French musical instrument makers 19th-century French artisans {{musical-instrument-company-stub