Antique Musical Instruments/carl fisher cornet

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Expert: - 9/2/2010


Question
I an interested in anything you can tell me about a cornet I inherited from my grandfather.It is a Besson from London #89957,gold in color. It is a Carl Fisher at 6 4th ave N.Y. My grand father passed away approx 75 years ago.

Answer
Besson instruments are always confusing to date, and may be even more suspect when they were marketed by Carl Fischer, but assuming that Fisher didn't use his own numbering system on it, it is likely to date to around 1908.  Fischer started as a dealer in 1872 in New York.  Besson started his company in Paris in 1838, and opened his London business in 1857.  The Besson company was separated from the Paris firm in 1894 and taken over by Boosey & Hawkes in 1948.

Antique Musical Instruments

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Kenton Scott

Expertise

Please note: My area is BRASS instruments, not other wind, string or percussion instruments. I will provide information on antique, obscure and out of production BRASS instruments. 1) Please don't ask for evaluations, I'll not provide them on this site. 2) I am often asked very similar questions, so I'd invite you to first check on Horn-u-Copia.net. Much of the information I have garnered about this topic, I have posted on this WEB site.

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I perform in several historical bands, have informally researched the area, repair brass instruments, and operate a Forum dedicated to the topic at http://horn-u-copia.net

Education/Credentials
B.S. Ed, M.S.

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