meridian,

Your early BSA Standard dates from 1914. John Knibbs gives the batch that your serial number appears in as manufactured Jan-July 1914, and dispatched from the BSA factory during the period Jan 1914-Mar 1915.

You potentially have a fairly rare gun there, as not many early 'Standards' were made before WW1 stopped production. The Standard name was carried on in 1919 when production re-commenced although to some, the pre-WW1 Standards were some of the very best guns that BSA made. Your gun also has the wide trigger with the supplementary second safety sear fitted, which was designed to help prevent accidental discharge of the gun. If there is any remains of the legend left on the compression cylinder, you may find that it gives the impression of being both etched
and rolled into the metal. However it soon wore off with harsh handling or over enthusiastic cleaning, so often the legend is missing.


All the best

Lakey
Lakey