The history of those other grades, partly made by outworkers seconded to Westley Richards, is recorded in the T-prefix volumes, still kept on our shelves. These record books feature sales of Westley Richards shotguns and rifles in a series of eight volumes containing all serial numbers prefixed with a 'T'.
They are:
T1001-T2000 (November 1902 - April 1905) - Shotguns & Rifles
T2001-T3000 (April 1905 - February 1908) - Shotguns & Rifles
T3001 - T4000 (April 1908 - June 1910) - Shotguns & Rifles
T4001-T5000 (November 2010 - May 1912) - Shotguns & Rifles
T5001-T7000 (August 1912 - March 1922 - Shotguns
T7001-T9000 (December 1915 - May 1926)Â - Shotguns & Rifles
T9001-T11000 (January 1926 - January 1935) -Â Shotguns
T11001-T11787 (January 1935 - April 1962) - Shotguns & Rifles
The first T-prefix gun was T1001, a Damascus barrelled 12-bore, with top-lever, sold on 31st November 1902. The last was T11787; a 12-bore with 28" barrels and 2 3/4" chambers, sold on 9th April 1962. The T-prefix books record only the following details of each gun or rifle: Serial No., Barrels, Description, Action Filer and Giving out No., Finisher & Giving out No., To Whom Sold and Date.
The amount of recorded detail in these columns is varied. Some of the older books record quite a lot, while later books have long spaces where little or nothing is recorded and what is written is very sparse. Included in these tomes are double barrelled shotguns and rifles, rook rifles and some bolt-action rifles. There are even some revolvers. Some of these firearms were sold to individuals but a larger proportion were sold to other retailers, both in the UK and overseas.
Among the retailers' names are: Army & Navy CSL, Lawn & Alder, J. Lyon & Co., W. Rawbone, Keep Bros, Perrins & Burke, Chalmers Guthrie & Co., A. Hollis & Son (Bombay), Woodhead Plant & Co., Blackwood Bryson & Co., Nippon Firearms Co. (Tokyo), Manton & Co. (Calcutta), New York Sporting Goods Co., Bob Smith Sporting Goods (Boston), Von Lengerke (Chicago), Allibhoy & Sons (Bombay), Degay (Kobe) and Noorbhoy (Bombay).
Very large numbers of guns were sold into various Indian dealerships during the 1920s. However, these export guns were sent all over the world and sold in sporting goods stores and ironmongers from Tazmania to Cape Town over a six decade period.
These represent what Westley Richards might have described as 'export quality' guns and rifles to be sold to settlers, professionals, government departments and the like, rather than the best quality sporting arms sold to individual customers as bespoke orders. They include a large proportion of fixed lock non-ejector Anson & Deeley action shotguns and rifles, as well as magazine rifles like the 'White Hunter' model in .425 WR, which lacked the sprung clips to help the cartridge feed, as used on the best quality version of the rifle. It is not unusual to find sequences of ten or twenty serial numbers in succession sold to an individual retailer.
One might expect these sequences of lower-priced guns to be limited in specification but that is not the case. The variety of detail available in action type, lever type, safety, grip, doll's-head, chamber length and triggers is significant, though many multiple orders are for repeated guns of the same specification.
'Giving Out' appears to record an outworker to whom the task of actioning and/or finishing was handed, rather than these tasks having been undertaken in the Westley Richards factory. As might be expected, the same names recur over long periods, with Clifford, Wells, Betts, Beddall, Wakeman, Evans, Cutler, H&J, Harris, and Price all featuring in the early 1900s. H. Payne takes over in the 1920s and '30s (interestingly Payne is a name which also appears regularly in Rigby's production books of the time, as does Price). Payne is listed repeatedly as an actioner in the late 1930s with Harris the most commonly noted finisher. Payne was still finishing T-series guns in the late 1940s.
Unfortunately, no prices are recorded, so we do not know exactly what each of these guns and rifles cost. However, we do know they are grade 3, 4 or 5 in the quality scale. These represent the quantity side of the Westley Richards business in the first half of the twentieth century. The company sold 11787 guns and rifles of these grades in a little over sixty years, making an average count of one hundred and ninety six per annum. That would have represented a significant income, usefully augmenting that of the 'best' gun and rifle manufacturing model for which Westley Richards is best known.
The T-prefix models are not the only sidelines - there are also the G-prefix, K-prefix and O-prefix volumes to explore. But that is a subject for another day.
Westley Richards has an outstanding reputation for supplying a comprehensive selection of pre-owned guns and rifles. We pride ourselves on our in depth knowledge of the many sporting arms built over the last 200 years, placing particular emphasis on big game rifles, like the 577 Nitro Express, 505 Gibbs and 425 Westley Richards. Whether looking to grow or sell your collection of firearms, or simply require a trusted evaluation, our team from the sales department would be delighted to hear from you. To view the latest available, head to the used shotguns and used rifles pages, and for those interested in new firearms, explore our custom rifles and bespoke guns pages.
