Start of production date: 1845

Closing of production date: 1882

French manufacture specialized in the making of brass instruments. The factory began as a workshop in Paris, open in 1827 by Jean Auguste Guichard l’aîné (1803-?). In 1835, Pierre Louis Gautrot (?-1882) became Guichard’s assistant at the workshop. At that time there was strong growth in the workshop and it became an important manufacture of musical instruments under the name Guichard. In 1845, Guichard names Gautrot as his successor at the head of the company. It is then called Gautrot and uses an anchor as the symbol of the brand. In the following year the firm became one of the biggest manufactures of musical instruments in Europe. Still in 1846, Guichard and Gautrot together with other manufacturers sued Adolph Sax, who invented the saxophone. At the time, Sax tried to have his instruments adopted by the French military bands. The process took a long time and it ended in 1859 when Sax won the dispute. In 1882, after a few name changes – Gautrot aîné & Cie. (1869), Gautrot-Marquet (1875), Gautrot aîné-Durand & Cie. (1877) – Auguste Amédée Couesnon, Gautrot’s son-in-law, becomes head of the company that is then named Couesnon, Gautrot & Cie. In 1888, they name it Couesnon & Cie., and in 1931 Couesnon S.A.

Bibliographic References: GROVE MUSIC ONLINE. HORNIMAN.