With browned sighted octagonal barrels signed along the top-flats, ‘Westley Richards 170 New Bond St London’ with foliate engraved breech blocks with single platinum lines, tangs incorporating rear-sight, beautifully foliate engraved, signed foliate engraved tangs fitted with sliding safety catches, full stocked in walnut (some scuff and hair-line crack towards the muzzle of one) deeply cut with chequering at the grips, with vacant rectangular escutcheons, blued steel trigger guards engraved with foliage on the bow, complete with captive ram-rods. In original lined and fitted mahogany case with accessories including three way flask (missing spring) the lid with trade label and flush fitting carrying handle. Both pistols are numbered '331' on the barrels and the trigger guards, pistols retinal original brown underneath. 

Richards, William Westley & Westley (son) [1812-1872]

William Westley Richards was born in Birmingham, England in 1788 of a family of merchants and silversmiths. In 1812 he established a gunsmiths shop at 82 High Street, Birmingham, selecting his gunsmiths from the already thriving gun trade in Birmingham. His first production was high-grade flintlock fowling pieces. In 1813 he was an active petitioner in establishing the Birmingham Proof House through an act of Parliament. 

He had the foresight to realise that he had to have a London outlet for his firearms, as the London market was by far the largest, and also for possible export trade to the Continent.

He chose the most fashionable quarter of London, a street made famous as the resort of the luxury class to which his guns appealed. The establishment was opened in 1815 at the then numbered 170 Bond Street. 

A. Merwyn Carey (1954) English, Irish and Scottish Firearms Makers, Acro Publishing Company, New York. 

RICHARDS

William Westley Gunmaker, Birmingham from 1812. Retail shop (with William Bishop as agent) 170 New Bond Street.,1826-72; 25 Lawrence Pountney Street., 1853-5. Gunmaker to Prince Albert. Died 1865. Firm then run by son, Westley Richards. 

Howard L. Blackmore (1986) Gunmakers Of London, 1350-1850. George Shumway Publisher. USA. 

Dimensions:

Bore: 16 Bore (Carbine Bore)

Barrel Length: 7 Inches (17.78 cm)

Overall Length: 12 Inches (30.48 cm)