In the case of Wm.Evans, maybe Webley's raw stock.
Its all in the fit and finish anyway, and there's the rub.
No, it isn't, and there's the rub.
Webley never numbered their actions. When they assigned a number to a gun they built for the trade, the number was stamped on the barrels, not on the action. This Evans is a readily identifiable Webley model and their number is on the barrels. In other words, it left Webley as a proven barreled action in the white, at a minimum. However, research into these Webley trade guns in recent years indicates that this was rarely done, and that most left Webley complete.
William Evans was largely a retailer back then, and famously retailed a LOT of Webley guns. Few in the trade believe that Evans was stocking and finishing the guns they were buying in from the trade in those days. I've had doubles like this from Evans, Holland, Rigby, etc., right next to guns of the same model that Webley built for no-name retailers that were absolutely identical - sometimes right down to the exact same engraving. No difference in quality of finish whatsoever. I see this regularly, because I'm taking notes on the guns, and writing down both serial numbers for my research.
According to the Evans records, this gun was built in 1929. According to the Webley & Scott serial number table that Nigel Brown published, the Webley number on the loop is also from 1929. Imagine that.
