After a 25-year break I've decided it's time to find a Euphonium again and pick up where I left off. I've found an interesting one on eBay, but I'm in the dark about "French Besson". The horn looks in pretty good nick but I'm having trouble dating it from the serial number, which is 97xxx. According to http://www.horn-u-copia.net/serial/Bessonlist.html 93000 relates to 1911 and 10200 to 1914, but then that's for London and the bell is stamped Paris and Made in France, in which case my last data point for extrapolation is 87001 in 1934, putting it around 1957, which seems more likely. The other thing of interest is that the valves protrude above the upper loop, making it more baritone-like - though I have seen other euphs with this design. I've seen a discussion about saxhorns on this site but I don't think this is one as it doesn't seen old enough (early 1900s) and the 3rd valve loop looks like a regular 1.5-step rather than 2-step. What do you think?
https://imgur.com/a/tOQwj0p