Gustave-Auguste Besson (1820-1874) was a musical instrument 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, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, in 1837. Besson is credited with more than 50 original inventions. His alterations to the cornet 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 – 4 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. He played the f ...

, Besson left Paris in 1858 and relocated to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

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

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Charleroi,

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

and

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. 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.

References

1820 births 1874 deaths Businesspeople from Paris French musical instrument makers {{musical-instrument-company-stub