{
    "date": [
        {
            "role": [
                {
                    "value": "the company was founded"
                }
            ],
            "description": [
                {
                    "value": "The company was thought to have been founded in this year."
                }
            ],
            "earliest": 1838,
            "value": "1838",
            "latest": 1838
        }
    ],
    "lifecycle": {
        "birth": [
            {
                "date": {
                    "earliest": 1838,
                    "value": "1838",
                    "latest": 1838
                }
            }
        ]
    },
    "occupation": "musical instrument maker",
    "projects": [
        "CollectionsOnline02"
    ],
    "nationality": [
        "Anglo-French"
    ],
    "contact": {
        "institution": [
            {
                "@link": {
                    "type": "literal"
                },
                "name": [
                    {
                        "value": "Besson & Co"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        "places": {
            "address": [
                "198 Euston Road"
            ]
        },
        "city": [
            {
                "@link": {
                    "type": "literal"
                },
                "name": [
                    {
                        "value": "London"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ],
        "department": [
            {
                "@link": {
                    "type": "literal"
                }
            }
        ],
        "type": "primary"
    },
    "summary_title": "Besson & Co",
    "name": [
        {
            "last": "Besson & Co",
            "type": "preferred name",
            "value": "Besson & Co",
            "primary": true
        },
        {
            "type": "alternative format",
            "value": "Besson"
        },
        {
            "type": "natural order",
            "value": "Besson & Co."
        },
        {
            "type": "alternative format",
            "value": "F. Besson"
        },
        {
            "type": "alternative format",
            "value": "Besson, F."
        },
        {
            "type": "alternative format",
            "value": "Fountaine-Besson"
        }
    ],
    "options": {
        "flag2": "N",
        "flag1": "N",
        "option1": "CollectionsOnline02",
        "sort_name": "BESSON & CO"
    },
    "admin": {
        "processed": 1729029122735,
        "sequence": 7436422,
        "uid": "hmc-agent-2971",
        "added": 1664637553996,
        "stream": "collections-online",
        "id": "agent-2971",
        "source": "hmc",
        "uuid": "57ced9d7-f980-357e-b1fb-dc1be1bd2cfa"
    },
    "description": [
        {
            "type": "biography",
            "value": "Besson was founded in Paris by Gustave Auguste Besson (1820-1875). A London branch opened in 1851 at the time of the Great Exhibition.  Besson's notable achievements were in brass instrument making, and the production of the prototype system of mandrels, thus ensuring that instruments could be exactly duplicated (and marks the birth of modern instrument making).\n\nFollowing Besson's death, the French firm was taken over by his daughters C\u00e9cil and Marthe.  Marthe later (possibly in the early 1880s) became Mme Fountaine-Besson, at which point the name 'F. Besson' was probably adopted.  The British firm was eventually taken over by Boosey & Hawkes (qv) in the early 1940s.\n[Source: The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments"
        },
        {
            "type": "brief biography",
            "value": "musical instrument maker (1838 - )"
        }
    ],
    "type": {
        "type": "organisation",
        "base": "agent"
    }
}