What a beautiful example of a SUPER RARE Rock-Ola, factory presentation M1 carbine. Over the years this describer has had the opportunity to see and handle a few real actual presentation M1 Carbines that were offered for sale. Rock Island Auction has the distinct pleasure of offering several presentation grade M1 Carbine in this auction and certainly this specific, one, a Rock-Ola M1 Carbine has to be one of the rarest variations ever offered for sale. Any presentation M1 Carbine should be considered rare, but one from Rock-Ola, the company who produced the second lowest number of M1 Carbines in total has to be the center piece of any advanced M1 Carbine collection. This specific M1 carbine was specially presented to Mr. Veneklasen, who was a staff member to Henry L. Stimpson, the Secretary Of War during WWII. The Rock-Ola company was awarded only one Gov't contract in late 1942 and produced carbines in three different block of serial numbers with this specific carbine being produced in the second to last block, probably in the 1943/1944 time frame. The front receiver rings has the standard WWII "U.S. Carbine/Cal .30/M1" and the rear of the receiver is marked "ROCK-OLA/EX-6095440", the barrel is just marked "ROCK-OLA". Rock-Ola was one of the few manufacturers who marked every part with their, full company name, space permitting. Since this was a special presentation carbine, it should be no surprise that every part is correctly marked. It has the early features produced during this time period, such as the type two barrel band without the bayonet lug, the flip rear sight, the unmarked push button safety, the smooth face/unmarked M1 type magazine catch, the earlier hand guard with the two rivets. The various parts are marked as follows; rear sight, R-R, bolt, ROCK-OLA, extractor; R, operating slide, ROCK-OLA, trigger guard ROCK-OLA, hammer LTQ-R, recoil shield, ROCK-OLA, 20 round magazine, R-SS. As noted it does have the earlier hand guard that is unmarked with a later M1 pattern low wood stock without any oiler or sling slot. The sling and oiler slot were intentionally not machined to show off the fancy figured walnut that is present throughout the entire stock. The carbine has the high polished all blued finish with deluxe fancy figured walnut stock and hand guard. The carbine is housed in a hand made walnut display case that has a small brass presentation plaque on the inside of the lid that says; "M1 CAL 30-CARBINE/ ROCK- OLA/Manufacturing Corporation/ CHICAGO/PRESENTED TO/ H. VENEEKLASEN/1945". The display case houses the carbine, with the following original new in the wrapper Rock-Ola accessories, a WWII canvas sling, the metal stock oiler and two spare 20 round magazines.

Excellent plus with 99% plus of the original high polished blue finish with just minor edge wear from handling and cycling the action. The stock and hand guard are also both in excellent plus condition with beautiful figure through out the stock and hand guard. The case and accessories are also in excellent condition with the walnut display case showing handling marks on the edges and corners with the left lower corner having some minor separation of the wood from age. A super example of a case Rock-Ola presentation M1 Carbine. It would certainly be worth doing some further research on Mr. Veneklasen.