The Westley Richards Westley Richards Monkey Tail Carbine #69 is a Shotgun first produced in 1943. It carries a scarcity score of 91/100 based on tracked survey data, with 4 active listings currently on the secondary market and a global benchmark price of $141,960.
The Westley Richards Monkey Tail is a breech-loading capping carbine developed around a distinctive tipping-breech action patented by the Birmingham firm in the 1860s, named for the curved operating lever that resembled a monkey's tail. Chambered for a paper or linen cartridge fired by a percussion cap, the design offered a significant improvement in rate of fire over muzzleloading carbines and found favor with irregular mounted units, notably Cape Colony frontier forces in southern Africa, where its reliability under field conditions earned it a strong reputation. Westley Richards built its broader reputation as one of Birmingham's most innovative gunmaking firms during the Victorian era, producing both sporting arms and military contract weapons across the transitional decades between muzzleloading and fully cartridge-based firearms. This example continues that Monkey Tail lineage, representing the distinctive capping-breech carbine format long associated with the Westley Richards name.