Gene, thank you very much for taking the time to put together the collage of Reilly levers. The ring (or torus) tipped under-lever is clearly a common pattern used by Reilly, though not universally. It fascinates me that so much effort went into the lever tips, with convex and concave profiles, rounded and squared, chequered and plain, and the ring tip. They must have all started as rough forgings, before being put to the file, all for a part that is rarely looked at in detail.
As we don’t know the reason some Reilly’s have the ring tip and some don’t, it either comes down to the client or the gunmaker’s preference. I now have an example of another gunmaker using the ring tip, which gives me two avenues to explore — did all Robert Ringer guns have the ring tip, and how many other makers used this decorative feature. One question answered, two more questions emerge...
