How about British and continental designs?
The gold standard of the British falling block action is the Farquharson, and is the action all the rest are compared to. It is an excellent action. The Fraser is a very fine action and is my personal favorite, but I am a sucker for anything in a side lever. The Westley Richards Model '81 and '97 are both good actions, the '97 being a under lever version of the earlier side lever '81.
Perhaps the handsomest of all the British action is the Holland and Woodward action produced by Holland and Holland. It came out at the end of the falling block actions heyday and so is not a very common action. The third variation of the action is a really fine action.
The last to see the light of day was the Webley 1902, easily recognized by its odd looking under lever.
The Farquharson, both Westley Richards, the Fraser, and the Webley designs were also produced as miniature actions.
There were of course a number of other actions that were produced. One example is the Field patent action which was in production from the 1870s to the turn of the century and pretty much every house in Great Britain built rifles on it. Scott and Holland were among those. The Peabody/ Martini action is another commonly used action.
The British market preferred hammerless actions. The only commercially successful hammer action that comes to mind is the excellent Alexander Henry. It is a most handsome and graceful action.
