Is inspectors mark authentic?

[flintsghost]

For those of you who know more than I, is this inspectors mark authentic. It is upside down. I've seen a lot of 1911A1's and have never seen one upside down. I don't think it would add any particular value but it seems strange to me. It's a late 1945 pistol in virtually mint condition in the original box. Comments?

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j296/bb29slider/pix250130812.jpg

[Johnny Peppers]

FJA looks fine, just upside down. I would like to see the box.
What is the dark color on the slide?

[flintsghost]

FJA looks fine, just upside down. I would like to see the box.
What is the dark color on the slide?

I suspect that is cosmoline that has not been cleaned off completely. The box looks fairly good with all the normal stuff from Remington Rand printed on it, but the serial number is stamped almost like a ink stamp. I forgot to mention that while researching I found there was another 1945 Rem Rand on cool gun site that also has the FJA upside down.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j296/bb29slider/1945RemRandbox.jpg

[Scott Gahimer]

I agree the FJA is fine, but the box is definitely a modern reproduction.

I'd like to see more photos of the whole pistol.

Thanks.

[flintsghost]

Trying to copy somebody elses pictures rarely yields satisfactory results. The entire pistol looks very dark to me. But with my own photography I have found that depending upon the type and temperature of the artificial light a pistol can look blue (as my 1968 RIA national match in classifieds looks) or it may look a lot darker if taken in natural but low light. It's hard to guess actual color from a photograph. I recently bought a 1944 Ithaca that looked a light blue in the photo's I was sent and yet when it arrived looked the same green color of every other Ithaca I've had or have. That's one reason I like to be able to examine them personally before the deal is final. So I don't get too excited about color myself. But if somebody else does, that's OK too.

[flintsghost]

I finally heard back from the owner who is selling it, Dave Worsham, in Texas. He indicated the pistol has oil on it, the mag is parkerized, and despite what the gunbroker listing has to say, he admitted the box is a reproduciton. You can see it on Gunbroker. It ends tomorrow. The sale price is $2000 and it hasn't had any takers for some unknown reason.

[Scott Gahimer]

The pistol appears to be completely refinished, which might explain why there are no bids at that price.

It may have oil on the finish, but I'm confident oil on the finish isn't what makes the pistol look refinished to me.

[Johnny Peppers]

Box is a fake instead of a reproduction. Someone modified the stamp as originally used by Remington Rand by moving some of the printing up so that NUMBER from ORD. DRAWING NUMBER now precedes the serial number. This is what the original stamping looks like.

http://i43.tinypic.com/jajbq1.jpg