In 95% factory original condition, we have a very unique and extremely fascinating 1917 production Colt 1911 US Army Service Pistol that left the factory without a serial number and with out any US Government Ordnance Final Inspection proof mark. In all respects this is a standard brushed blue finished 1917 production WWI issued Military pistol except it is not numbered or inspected. How did this happen??? What is going on here???………The only explanation that we can come up with is that this was a “lunch box” assembled pistol, where a Colt Factory employee snuck/pilfered this pistol or pieces of it out of the factory to create a non-inventoried and non-registered pistol.
These so called Lunch box guns are very rare but not unknown to collectors and they do occasionally surface. We have seen several M1 carbines that look to have been put together in this fashion and there are a few 1911a1’s with these characteristics as well. We think that this will be of extreme interest to any advanced colt collector from the totality of the piece or the parts alone.
