Oberndorf;
I happened to think that my previous description of the Birmingham Proof House private viewers mark may confuse, as the description of the "cross" of the mark of the time frame of the 1920's and later is not really a cross pike, but cross swords or sceptres, with a capital letter indicating a year code and a number of dots indicating the seniority of the inspector who viewed the gun. Further the year code of the time of your guns proof did not follow a calendar year but was instead from 1 July to 30 June.
Therefore for 1 July 1925 to 30 June 1926 the letter code was "E". The previous year was "D", and of course the following year was "F".
This code (introduced by Proof Master Lt. Col. Playfair in 1921) continued until 1940-41 (letter "V"), died out during the war years and reintroduced by Proof Master R.P. Lees 1 Jan 1950 with a modified mark that was used through the 1974 until the letters of the alphabet were exhausted , I believe. Whilst the Lees modified mark retained the cross swords/sceptres it differed in that a left hand letter mark (1950= "A") was used along with a right hand "B" for Birmingham; and the year letter was consistent with the calendar year. The number at the bottom of the crossed sceptres indicates the rank of the Proof House viewer. The viewer marks have been modified several times since 1974 and were within a segmented circle instead of cross scepters. This was mark was soon changed to just a circle without segments, but with right/left letters and bottom number.
I apologize for my previous confused description of the viewers mark.
It is not unusual to find a barrel proofed at Birmingham in the time frame of the private viewers mark that are not stamped with a mark.
The two proof houses do make mistakes from time to time and I have seen guns reproofed that had the bore diameters stamped on the wrong side of the flat: right for left and so forth.
Bv
