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This is a very early 1870s Besson Eb tuba. It has been completely refinished, relacquered, and valves replated at some point in the past. Plays at modern pitch level, receiver has been replaced with American-size receiver to accept regular shank mouthpieces, new valve buttons with pearls. Evidence of some repair and patches. I repaired some leaky patches on the 3rd valve slide crook. There is some evidence of the brass oxidizing underneath the later lacquer job which seems to be cosmetic.

This is an extremely light instrument and the brass is a bit thin and fragile, but it plays very well and has a nice punchy sound. Valves work great, all slides move, intonation is fine.

Includes very nice padded hard case and a houndstooth pattern drawstring wool bag that covers the instrument.

Asking $500 plus shipping. PM me or email beanhillbrass at gmail. Thanks!

How many medals of honour did it get?

humBell wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 5:14 pm How many medals of honour did it get?

Indeterminate based on engraving.



But based on Horn-u-copia, probably 28? The serial number is 209xx. ref: https://www.horn-u-copia.net/Reference/ ... thisrec=40

Bonus pic of houndstooth bag:



Note: this tuba weighs about 9.5 pounds.

Neat tuba. Would be great for those Christmas tuba playing events.

arpthark wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 9:28 am

I suspect that the actual SN ="120904", putting it in 1921-1931.
50 MoH.

I don't see a hint of that leading 1 and the rest of the SN engraving is pretty clear/not buffed out like the bell engraving. It looks awfully close to this 1875 one held by the Simonetti museum:

https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... ns-c-1875/


I would peg mine at very late 1870s/1880s.

Also, by 1895 it would've been stamped "Besson & Co," I believe. This one is an "F. Besson." Although it is an Eb!