With the passage of time, changing economic fortunes, premises alteration and vacation, two world wars and myriad more subtle opportunities for books and papers to get lost, damaged, destroyed or otherwise compromised, it is remarkable that any of our historic gun sales, specifications and customer records survive at all.
Westley Richards staff handle dozens of calls and e-mails daily, requesting information on a gun, rifle, past customer, manufacturing process or date relating to one object or another bearing the name ‘Westley Richards’.
We are pleased to help when we can but there are limits to the extent of the information staff are likely to be able to provide. Those limits are largely defined by the existence (or not) of historic ledgers recording the information requested.
Where the ledgers do exist, the information is often split between two or three books, some detailing orders, others detailing manufacture. The books are old, fragile and the information within them hand-written in old-fashioned pen and ink script.
This can be hard to decipher accurately, especially given the abbreviations and shorthand terminology used for some objects, firms, people, processes or specifications. Locating, comprehending, explaining and copying all the relevant details is time consuming, requires an expert eye and, therefore, incurs a charge commensurate with the work involved.
RECORDS WE DO NOT HAVE
There are no records for military rifles or pistols. If you have a monkey-tail carbine or a Mauser pistol or rifle, please do not request information about it, as there is none to furnish.
GUN ORDER BOOKS
Gun order books contain quite a comprehensive record of each order. Many of these were taken from the Bond Street, London agency and sent to Birmingham for processing at the factory.
These ‘London’ orders are on a form, which is pasted into the ‘Gun Order Book’, accompanied by hand-written notes. Others consist entirely of hand-written details entered directly onto the page.
Details vary over the years but a typical example from 1921 serves to inform the reader of what is likely to be recoverable. The dry and degraded leather cover of our ‘Gun Order Book’, starting in 1920, encapsulates aged paper with frayed edges. Inside, one of those pages details an order taken for Count Alfred Potocki on March 11th 1921, for a pair of 20-bore ‘Fauneta’ ball & shot guns. The serial numbers attributed to his order are 17785 and 17786.
It gives the Count’s address as ‘Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly’. Of the guns, it specifies; ‘Pair, best quality 20 (bore) “Fauneta” B&S (ball & shot) guns’, sighted to 300 yards.’ It then goes on to show the stock type (straight hand), length, bend and cast off. “O.T’ (one trigger), ‘hammerless ejector’, ‘exactly as other guns supplied 1920’. Weight is specified as, ‘as light as possible’ and the oval to be, ‘engraved with crest, as pattern’.
The case and cleaning accessories are specified and the cost noted as two hundred and ninety pounds with additional charges for 200 ‘Fauneta’ cartridges. Pencil notes show the export licence was applied for on 5th July 1921 and that the order was ‘wanted by September 1st 1921 – latest, if possible before’.
The Gun Order Books from the 1920s are probably the most comprehensive we have; earlier and later records are often far less detailed. For example, an 1824 reference to ‘131’ merely states ‘W.Y. Peel Esq M.P’ and ‘To exchange of double gun’.
SERIAL NUMBER RECORD BOOKS
The serial numbers attributed to Count Potocki’s guns (17785 & 17786) can be used to cross reference the order in the record books of ‘Westley Richards Shotguns & Rifles’, which are smaller, leather bound volumes.
The relevant volume confirms the serial numbers as; ‘Pair, 20g Fauneta, H’less Ej, OT, Count A. Potocki’ and dates them to 30th August 1921, which would be the date of completion.
FACTORY RECORDS
The Factory records are not in exact order of serial number but contain a lot more information, where the guns are recorded.
Count Potecki’s ‘Fauneta’ order can be cross-referenced by serial number and appears in the Factory Book as ‘Order Number 03/185’ and confirms serial numbers as 17785/6 for the pair, described as ‘One pair best quality dble H’less Ejector Fauneta Ball & Shot Guns, 20 gauge. Selective OT, Det Lock, H.C.P, swivels for sling. Stocks St hands, rubber recoil pads, 13 ½ OT to edge at centre. Bend 1 ½” at face, 2” at bump. Cast off 3/8”. Barrels to be sighted to 300 yards. Weight as light as possible. Delivery Sept 1st. Best LBO case for the pair, complete with fittings.’ The pair were given ‘New B engraving’.
Fuller details of the components are provided; the barrels weighed 3lbs 2 ¼ oz, the stocks weighted 3lbs. 1 1/2oz, the forend 8 1/2oz, for a total weight of 6lbs. 12 ¼ oz each gun. The finished guns were dispatched on 13th September 1921.
CONNAUGHT SHOTGUNS
The records for Connaught shotguns, beginning in 1965 with number 136294, are very basic indeed, with no more than date, basic specifications and buyer recorded. For example, serial number 136643 is a 20-bore with 27 inch barrels, chambered 2 ¾” and choked ¾ (L) and ¼ (R). Stock dimensions were straight-hand stock, 1 ½” drop at comb, 2 1/8” drop at heel. It was delivered to Abercrombie & Fitch in New York on 2nd June 1966.
MAUSER RIFLES, CARBINES & PISTOLS
From 1899 to 1904, Westley Richards was a retailer and wholesaler of Mauser rifles, carbines and pistols. The vast majority appears to have been wholesale trade.
Rifles are listed by serial number but not in sequence (for example 6304 is followed by 5421, which is followed by 5902).
Buyers represent the entirety of the gun trade of the day, with names including Rigby & Co., C. Lancaster, Army & Navy, Cogswell & Harrison, Wilkinson Sword, T. Bland, Lang & Hussey, Watson, C.B Vaughan, Churchill, Reilly, Gammage, S.W Silver, Woodward & Sons, Holland & Holland etc.
Searching these records for a particular Mauser rifle is impractical as one would have to search every single entry on every single page to find a particular serial number. If the serial number is indeed discovered, all it will provide is the firm to whom the Mauser was sold and on what date, for example, number 28668 was sold to Moore & Grey on January 19th 1901. No further information is provided.
‘T’ PREFIX WESTLEY RICHARDS GUNS & RIFLES
Guns and rifles with a letter ‘T’ prefixing the serial number were mostly made or supplied by Westley Richards for retail by another firm, like Lyon & Lyon in Calcutta, Abdoolally & Noorbhoy in Bombay, Abercrombie & Fitch in New York and Army & Navy CSL in London. However, some are listed as sold to individuals.
They were mostly of second and third quality and have a ’giving-out’ number, suggesting they were partly (or wholly) constructed outside Westley Richards, in the Birmingham trade.
The listing for ‘Action Filer’ is mostly given as ‘Payne’ who appears to have been the factory foreman in the 1920s, charged with passing around the work and getting the guns ready. A finisher is also listed, with another ‘giving-out’ number.
An example of the available information on ‘T’ prefix guns can be taken from Serial Number T6390, ordered on July 21st 1914 as order No. D 2/3 58. It is described in the Factory Book as 1 x WR ‘General Purpose’ double H’less Ejector gun, 12 gauge, fitted with new OT. H-detachable locks, HBP, stock st hand, thin oval shape, Length 13 ½” from OT. Bend 1 5/8” and 2 ¼” with 1/6 on bump. Trigger curved for left fore-finger, Barrels 28” steel, 2 ½” cases, Right cylinder, left mod choke, regulated for 1oz No.6, Weight 6lb. 6oz – 6lb. 8oz. No case required, Bond Street have this. The Serial Number Book records T6390 as ‘Barrels 28” steel, Cyl & Choke, A&D Ej, Det, New OT, flange lever’, Action Filer Evans, Giving out No. 1837, Finisher Evans, made for Mrs. W.P. Grosvenor, December 31st 1915’. It appears likely that the gun was made as an ‘off–the-shelf model and sold in Bond Street, then altered to fit Mrs. Grosvenor, who was left-handed, when it was purchased.
W. RICHARDS
All our guns and rifles are styled ‘Westley Richards’ in full. If you have a gun or rifles styled ‘W. Richards’, it was not made or sold by this company.
W. Richards (William Richards) was a gun maker with shops in Liverpool and Preston and was not connected with Westley Richards in any way. We have no records for W. Richards products.
SUMMARY
Please do not contact the company for information on any firearm unless it is a Westley Richards sporting shotgun or rifle. We have no records for military models or pistols
It should be understood that the information available may be limited on some models and that a search through the records for full details is time consuming and expensive to undertake. We do, therefore, charge accordingly to carry out these searches and provide such information as we are able to uncover.
If you would like to receive information about your Westley Richards Shotgun or Rifle, we can provide a copy from our ledgers together with a certificate of year of manufacture for £120 / $150. Click here to go to the WR Store where you can complete and submit a form and make payment.
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