Webley Pryses - very little info available

[H Wally]

Looking into webley pryse revolvers and finding very little.

As I understand it, they were the precursor to webley revolvers in both age and design. Does that sound at least partially correct?

Are they like S&W #3's in that they were all made before 1898? I believe they were, as they used a precursor design to the webley, shared webley's name, and there is no reason for webley to have leant their name to an inferior product after they came out with their paddle locking webley MK1 and onwards. Opinions? Information?

 

[mooncoon]

I believe they are all antique. Some like mine have another name on them but were made by Webley and sold probably in the white to another firm for marketing. The shortcoming of them, I found was that you can get black powder fouling in the socket of the locking pieces and that prevents the locking piece from engaging or fully engaging the pin that it fits over

cheers mooncoon

 

[dingus]

I just bought a very nice British Hills Pryse Revolver.
Its got hills Extractor patent on it its rare and its got a 4 inch barrel has the two paddles and its Antique.
Very intresting gun its 45 cal to should be here in a week i will post some pics.
As far as i know all British Pryse Type revolvers are pre 1898.
Ive never been refused a Letter on one yet .

 

[jethunter]

Here is what I know. Most of it comes from the book "Webley Revolvers", some from CGN members Dingus and GrantR (thanks guys!).

The Pryse revolver is properly called the "Webley No. 4" revolver, aka the "Webley Pryse No. 4" or the "Webley Pryse". It was produced by Webley with manufacture starting in 1877. Some of the design elements contained in the Webley No. 4 revolver had been patented earlier by a man named Pryse, and hence the well-known nickname for this model.

I haven't found any reference to a definitive end date for production, but 1896 is the last year they were offered for sale in the Army and Navy Cooperative Stores catalogue, which is a good indicator that production stopped sometime prior to that date.

If the revolver has the Webley name and markings it should be no problem to prove it is an antique. The dating problem comes with some of the "Pryse type" revolvers that do not have Webley markings. Wilkinson revolvers seem to be ok, but some Manton and I. Hollis and Sons revolvers have been refused antique status by the CFC of late. (If anyone knows of a reference book or info on dating Hollis revolvers, please contact me).

All the Wilkinson revolvers I have seen are Webleys, but at least some of the Hollis revolvers are Belgian clones. You can tell by looking behind the trigger - Webley Pryse revolvers have a "sear pivot" protruding into the trigger guard behind the trigger.

This Belgian revolver is not a Webley, commonly called a "Pryse type".

This is a real Webley Pryse. Note the sear pivot protruding into the rear inside of the trigger guard.

 

[Brutus]

Thanks for the history lesson fellas......

Cheers!