The association of musical instrument makers that made our instrument was formed in Paris in 1865. There were initially 32 craftsmen in the association, which was formed with the goal of reducing the daily work hours from 12 to 10. This organization lasted until 1905 when it was purchased by another French maker, Couesnon.
An earlier association was also formed in the 1840s by existing French makers - Besson, Couesnon and several others, to drive the newly successful Belgian maker, Adolph Sax, who had recently moved to Paris, out of business. This mostly unsuccessful effort lasted for almost four decades. It is not known if the association that made our instrument was involved in that effort.
French single C tubas were used in France from the mid 19th century until the mid 20th century in both military bands and orchestras, as their lowest bass brass instruments. They are only approximately 8 feet long - shorter than the standard Bb euphonium, which is approximately 9 feet long.
In most of the other European countries, tubas grew larger and larger. In fact, so much so that by 1850 the Central European maker V. F. Cerveny had already produced the first CC and BBb contrabass tubas, which are approximately 16 and 17.5 feet long, respectively.
However in France, the brass instrument makers preferred to produce smaller bass brass instruments with five and six piston valves. This feature, theoretically, allowed these small tubas to play as low as the much longer and larger contrabass tubas.
This Association General French C tuba has a bell diameter of 10 1/5 inches, a dual valve bore of .570 inch for the first three valves, and .610 inch for the fourth and fifth valves. The height is 24 inches.
https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... 1865-1899/