This gun is in my opinion yet another example of the trade in spurious guns.A trade that became a threat to legitimate British makers during the mid to late 1800,s. At one time I owned two guns similar to the one seen in this post;one was marked, Moore, London and the second, Nock, Fleet Street,London;both guns were spurious.
W.W. Greener, along with many other leading makers of the era suffered from this illegal trade practice.Greener describes this trade in his book," The Gun and its development," pages 415&416. Sub heading; "The spurious gun and its detection".Greener suffered much from the spurious trade. He states; "all guns marked, Horace Greener, Albert Greener,J.H; W.H;A.H;and other H.Greener guns are pracically fogeries!" In 1895 he was awarded 5,500 pounds stirling damages against one party engaged in the spurious gun trade.
Greener expresses sympathy for Westley Richards descibing the use of the name, "Richards" on spurious guns as being legion!We see many posts on this forum enquiring about guns bearing the name," Richards", almost all are of Belgian origin,and of inferior quality.Most of the guns we see marked, "Richards" were marketed in North America by H&D.Folsom of N.Y.
