Kathy1 I take it that this is the type of Purdey snap action gun you have recently purchased.
Now I am not a purdey fount of all knowledge, though I do know a goodly amount about this Purdey gun because we have been together for some fifty years now. It was built in 1869 as a set of four its serial number is 798X and still having the original barrels it started life with. Yes there is a stamp at the end of the barrel hook by the central cartridge ejector mechanism.
On this gun it is TP and as far as I am aware those initials are the barrel maker who at this time where allowed to initial their work, I have always believed what I have been told from a number of sources that up to the 1870s Purdey purchased the Damascus tubes from Belgian makers, then built up the barrel sets in their own workshops. As you can see from the photograph this gun is the number 1 of the set with the serial number impressed on the barrel tubes not on the action flats consistent with its age.
