I was in a great gunshop this week and looked at a half dozen fine English (e.g. Purdey) and American guns (e.g. Lefever) with Whitworth barrels dating to the period between 1890 and 1910. Of the Whitworth barrels we looked at, they were equally divided between barrels which had the famous sheaf of wheat trademark and barrels which did not. The trademark, where it exists, is so deeply stamped in the steel that I do not think refinishing of the barrels can explain its absence on the fine guns where Whitworth barrels are unmarked. Does anyone know why some Whitworth barrels are marked and some are not?
