The 3 above the serial number on the watertable is the Quality number. For some reason Parker Bros. used numbers to designate the quality of a gun internally within the organization, while externally in catalogues and price lists they used the letter grades?!? In hammerless Parker Bros. guns, the GH-/GHE-grade was a Quality 2, a DH-/DHE-Grade was a Quality 3, a CH-/CHE-Grade was a Quality 4, a BH-/BHE-Grade was a Quality 5, an AH-/AHE-Grade was a Quality 6, a AAH-/AAHE-Grade was a Quality 7, the A1-Special was a Quality 8, and an Invincible was a Quality 9. Theoretically a PH-/PHE-Grade would be a Quality 1, and a VH-/VHE-Grade would be a Quality 0, but I've never seen the cooresponding number stamped on a VH or PH?!?
Certainly sounds like the gun started life with Damascus barrels and at some point in time the Damascus tubes were cut off and the gun sleeved with steel tubes by Westley Richards. I would assume the barrel flats are littered with British proof marks.
