Unfired Ithica 1911A1 Value?

[valkyrie45]

This fall I purchased a 1911A1 (SN 12684XX) from the family of the WWII vet it was issued to. I have signed documents from two Family members involved in the sale and news paper articles detailing this veteran's life. He finished medical school in 1944 and after joining the Navy ended up as a corpsman and was shipped to Okinawa just as the war was coming to an end in 1945.
When the vet entered a nursing home in 2013 his son asked a cousin to take his father's firearms and sell them. The son had no knowledge of this pistol as his father never mentioned it. The pistol was packed in grease, wrapped in some sort of paper and placed in what is believed to be the original 1916 holster also in new condition with untied thong still attached. The holster is marked with the vet's name and it was manufactured by the Craighead Company. The cousin carefully removed the grease to reveal a prestine Ithica 1911A1 with one original new clip. Upon the vets death earlier this year I purchased the pistol.
An interesting side note is this vet came home from the war and became a successful doctor which years later was my mother's doctor that delivered me!
With the provenance described and the documented story what would you value this pistol?
Thanks for your interest.

[Scott Gahimer]

Hard to say without seeing the pistol, but surely what you paid for it. Most Parkerized Ithaca pistols in nearly new condition sell in the $2000+/- range. If the pistol serial number shows up as a Navy shipment, value would probably be a little higher (for no real good reason). A minty Craighead M1916 is probably worth $150+/-.

[joem]

Pictures, we need pictures!!!

[valkyrie45]

Thank you! I am not real tech-no savy but will try to post some photos. I have them on my phone and have read where you guys are building files on photo bucket. I have uploaded photos on photobucket but haven't been able to copy the the link yet. I'm working on it.

According to Clawson's third edition of his Collector's guide this serial number range falls with in contract W-740-ORD-2442, page 115.
On page 145 it indicates it was built in early 1944. Serial Number range is (1944 +/- 1235000 - 1279673).
On page 121 it indicates it was shipped to the Army Air Base Hampton Field, Calif on April 18, 1944.

So does that mean it went to the Army?

[Scott Gahimer]

The serial range you're looking at on page 121 is a broad serial range with ca. 71,000 numbers in it. There were only 1,621 pistols in that broad range that went to Hamilton Field for the Army Air Force. Ithaca pistols shipped at that time were not shipped in sequential serial numbers, so a complete search of the original Ithaca shipping records must be done to possibly determine where your pistol was shipped.

[valkyrie45]

So where do I get started to search the Ithaca shipping records? That sounds like a big project!

[Scott Gahimer]

If you look in the Clawson Collector's Guide 3rd Edition, you will see in the Acknowledgements, a collector credited with discovering the Ithaca records and providing them to Mr. Clawson. That collector has done searches and issued letters on the results for individual pistols over the years. He produced a CD and even sold a few copies to other collectors with all rights reserved, with the understanding the CDs were not be be copied and distributed. Somewhere along the way, I suspect a pirated copy may have ended up in the wrong hands because CDs were being advertised and sold online a few years ago.

If you provide the full serial number here, I'm relatively sure someone will be able to provide the information you want, or you could contact the collector who originally produced the CD and see if he would provide the information and/or letter, like he used to do. I don't believe he is an active collector anymore, so...

[valkyrie45]

Ok, I will try contacting him and let you know.

Thanks!