Two pistols ... in a thousand
Yes. No more than a thousand of these were made by Westley Richards for a Portuguese contract, in 1867.
This pattern, called monkey tail, due to that peculiar breech lever, was already obsolete, when it was supplied and distributed to the Portuguese cavalry regiments. When this famous gunmaker introduced this breech loading system for percussion guns, some ten years prior to this date, the idea was revolutionary, but soon front loading and ignition cap were condemned, in favor of modern systems, like the metalic cartridge and center fire.
Apart from some pistol prototypes, namely the ones presented to British Ordnance ( without success), it seems as only rifles were produced with this system, except for the said 1000 pistols ordered by the Portuguese Government.
Fernando
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