Muchatrucha: Like the Lancasters you mention, I find most all back-action guns fairly attractive. Like the hammer guns they directly evolved from, they tend to have more rounded actions and a slimmer profile. In 1882, Purdey was just another high-end London gunmaker, mixed into the ranks of Lang, Grant, Blanch, Lancaster, and the rest. After buying the first Beasley patent, everybody else was losing market-share to them. Boss and Holland & Holland figured the game out and moved forward with them, the others fell behind and became second-tier makers.
