As recently discussed in
this thread, I have a nice old 1918 Webley Mk VI. I decided to go on the hunt for a few of the appropriate period accessories for this pistol. It seemed a bit lonely all by itself in its plastic case.
I've located and purchased a couple of nice old sealed packets of British ammo for the .455, some recent Hornady cartridges, a couple of 90-year-old holsters, and a few items useful for reloading.
The old ammo and the better of the two holsters (a British officers' type in prime shape) have yet to arrive, but today I did receive one holster. It's an NCO type, open top. It fits the revolver just fine, and though a little creaky, it's well intact. But the REAL bonus is the cleaning rod that came with the holster.
The brass rod was covered in verdigris where it had lain inside the holster slot for untold years, but I found the substance was oil-soluble and could be removed easily without otherwise affecting the metal or its patina. (The rod is in nice shape, no pits nor any apparent damage except for its surface coloring.) This allowed me to seek out its markings. The mottled patina obscures the markings, but it is stamped:
Parker-Hale
Made in England
I was delighted to learn that this is a relatively rare version of the .455 cleaning rods, which are not plentiful in general. One is offered for sale
here at collectorfirearms.org for $225.00. It's more perfect than mine and probably overpriced; but it's valued at more than twice the prices of other .455 Webley rods on the same site.
Evidently my 'new' cleaning rod is worth something like twice what I paid for holster and rod together.
Oh, and while I'm on the subject, I ran onto
an Australian auction that has some of the rarest of collector gems for the .455 Webley: An original shoulder stock for the pistol:
And, two different versions of Parker & Hale .22 caliber rimfire conversions used for training military recruits in use of the .455 Mark VI:
The device above is an 'aiming tube' that is used sans cylinder, single-shot. The lower set includes a cylinder for a more natural mode of fire.
Very cool stuff. I want it all. But the prices! I think I'll do without, for now. But I doubt these old things will grow any cheaper with time.