My W Richards does not have the little tree. It has some scroll type engraving on the lockplates, top tang, the bottom of frame & trigger guard. It has a straight grip stock with long tang ending in a point. Has a steel butt plate with a spur at the top, It had an escutcheon in forend tip but was missing when I acquired it so do not know what it was.
It is a side lever opener with single underbolt & no rib extension. Both lockplates are marked W Richards & the top rib is marked W Richards London Laminated Steel. I would call it a plain (wire) twist. Both stock & forend are checkered & forend is a snap-on.
It was proofed prior to the chamber mark enclosed in a diamond & has only the bore marking which on this one is 14 though the chamber will take a 12 gauge shell.
If memory serves me correctly with the 1887 proof law the chamber designation was added as well as the in-between gauge marks, as 14/1, etc. This one currently measures just shy of a 13 gauge. "IF" it has ever been honed it shows no sign of it now. I keep it because it was my Grandfathers gun. My dad was born in 1910 & Grandaddy had it as long as he can remember. I do not know if he bought it new or not, but suspect it had some use when he got it.
There is no serial number on it. On the right barrel alongside the forend lug is the letter 3. On the left barrel behind the forend lug down close to the lower rib is what appears could have been O,S though the O is incomplete., could be something else.
I can assure you these guns were built by Neither Westley or William Richards. Everything I have been able to find points to J P Clabrough.
