15/06/2020
Westley Richards 1869 .450 Number 1 Carbine Sporting Rifle; 24" barrel; vg shiny bore; blade front sight, 1 standing sight and two sight leaves for 200 and 300 yards and a ladder sight (graduated to 800 yards!) Retailed by I HOLLIS & SONS, action fine scroll engraving; Chambering marking ("For 1-1/2 in Case"). "Henry's Patent Rifling" barrel marking.
Keyed & chequered for-end with sculpted buffalo horn ; chequered figured walnut stock with engraved butt plate cap containing original three piece cleaning rod; Original sling; excellent working order & very fine cond. SERIAL NUMBER 518
REPRODUCED PERIOD OAK ENGLISH CASE made to original specifications. Reloading dies. Original bullet mould. ANTIQUE / NO LICENCE REQUIRED. A GREAT INVESTMENT FOR THE COLLECTOR. More photos available on request.
BRITISH SINGLE SHOT RIFLES Volume 4 Wal Winfer pages 38-40
Nearly every source describes this original Westley Richards patent, hinged tipping block, single-shot design as an "Improved Martini". This terminology is so ubiquitous that even prominent merchants of fine vintage arms use it unthinkingly. The esteemed Walter Winfer, acknowledged as the guru of British single shot lore, uses it freely. But Winfer at least makes it clear that the moniker is technically incorrect. The Martini design was a hammerless modification of the original Peabody action design. However, the Westley Richards design is similar only in the respect of a hinged breechblock that tips down for loading. None of the rest of the internals share any commonality. Whereas the Peabody has an external hammer and the Martini a striker, the Westley Richards has an internal hammer with an integral firing pin. More to the point, the Westley Richards design predates the Martini, so its clearly not an improvement on that design. In fact, the Westley Richards design was a competitor with the Martini for British military contracts. After losing out to the Martini for the British Army, the Westley Richards design was marketed heavily to the pioneers and settlers of the Dutch Boer colony of South Africa in both musket and sporting rifle forms.
The design (including the Model 1871 and its variants) was extremely popular in the Cape colony and was followed by improvements and variations for several years, competing well against Westley Richards' own Deeley-Edge patent falling block design and remaining in production until the expiration of the Gibbs Farquharson patent rights around the turn of the century and its release to the trade prompted the firm to develop the similarly styled Model 1897 Westley Richards New Model Underlever Rifle, which was the ultimate evolution of the Deeley-Edge action. There is much confusion regarding the various models, in part because Westley Richards continually advanced the design and also made individual rifles to order. The Model 1869 is distinguished from the later larger framed Model 1871 most easily by examining the length of the lever in relation to the trigger guard; in the Model 1869, the lever does not extend much rearward past the small trigger guard, whereas on the Model 1871, it comes well past the long trigger guard.
The Knox form barrel is a straight taper, fairly heavy on the breech end but tapering rapidly and quite light at the muzzle, some 24 inches in length. There is one standing sight and two sight leaves for 200 and 300 yards and a ladder sight (graduated to 800 yards!). The underlever of the action is cranked, in this case to the right, as is true for all Westley Richards Model 1869 and 1871 rifles. It has a functional safety lever on the right side that works simply by preventing the trigger from moving upward (you can actually see it in action - the mechanism is entirely external).
It is straight stocked with a short, very British, forearm The forearm is secured by a cross key in the manner of practically all muzzleloading sporting arms up to this date. The grip and forearm have bordered flat top checkering and the forearm tip is of sculpted buffalo horn.
