I found a picture of a gun which looks identical to my Birmingham proofed W Richards. This is an early gun prior to the chamber mark being placed. It only has the bore diameter at time of proof. Mine is stamped 14 & amazingly the one pictured was also. This would date it earlier than 1887 I believe. Mine has a left side opening lever. This was my Grandfather's gun & I truly wish it was in shootable condition even for black powder, but unfortunately is not. The pictured gun was stated to be a "Clabrough" built gun & was it seems imported by Folsom, though not built by either them or Crescent.
Prior to 1887 the "Tween" sizes were not used, bores were stamped only with whole numbers. The bores on mine currently are Just under a 13 gauge. If this is original size if a later gun it would have been marked as a 14/1 rather than just 14. The question arises was it originally a 14 gauge gun which was subsequently re-chambered to 12 or was it just built with undersize bores. I tend to think the later, but could be wrong. It does not have very heavy breeches, but this is not at all unusual for an early Black Powder gun.
