This is just a beautiful, example of certainly a "One Of A Kind" Remington-Rand factory presentation M1911A1 pistol. This pistol is in excellent, all original condition retaining nearly all of the original WWII Remington-Rand factory parkerized finish overall. In case you are not familiar with Lt Col Atwood, he was the US Army Executive Officer that was in charge of all ordnance activities in his district. Lt Col Atwood was assigned to the Rochester Ordnance District and had sole responsibility for inspecting and accepting or rejecting all war material that was produced or manufactured under Government contract in this district from mid-1942 through early 1946. During this time frame in the Rochester district both the Remington-Rand and Ithaca factories fell under his control. Consequently if you look at any model of M1911A1 produced by either of those companies, you will see his initials "F.J.A." prominently stamped on the left side of the pistol frames. This indicates that this was a provisionally accepted as a US Army M1911A1 pistol, also accompanying these initials you will also find a small ordnance inspector proof on the right side which denotes final inspection and acceptance by the in-plant QA inspectors. During the WWII time period you can imagine that this was an extremely important and demanding position, and obviously his work must have been of the highest standard to warrant receiving this factory presentation pistol. This pistol is accompanied by a notarized letter from the consignor which states that he purchased this pistol from Mrs. Lucinne Atwood, the widow of Lt Col. Atwood, who was quoted as saying that "this pistol was taken off the production line at the Remington-Rand company and was presented to Lt Col. Frank J. Atwood in appreciation for his services as the US Army Government inspector and that this pistol had been in his possession since the presentation in October 1944 until his death in 1977." The pistol as noted was a standard M1911A1 Remington-Rand pistol that has the factory markings on the left side of the slide of "REMINGTON RAND INC. / SYRACUSE, N.Y. U.S.A." with a small letter "P" on top ahead of the rear sight. The right side of the frame is stamped with the Ordnance Corps cartouche behind the grips, "UNITED STATES PROPERTY" over the serial number and "M 1911 A1 U.S. ARMY" in front of the slide stop pin hole. The left side of the frame as noted is correctly stamped with Frank J. Atwood's inspector mark and "P" below the magazine release. In additional it has the following factory presentation markings milled or inscribed; left side of the frame is marked "OCTOBER 17 1944", denoting the month and year of presentation and the right side has serial number inscribed, "NO. 500,000X". There is no regular serial numbered marked on the frame as those were reserved for US Army contract pistols and could not be used on this piece. The right side of the slide is also marked or inscribed; "500,000TH, PISTOL AUTOMATIC CALIBER .45/MADE BY REMINGTON-RAND INC. SYRACUSE, N.Y.". It is also accompanied by an article from the US Ordnance Dispatch authored by Scott Meadows, entitled "Golden Guns of Remington-Rand" that discusses this specific pistol along with a walnut display stand. The stand has a small brass plaque on the base which reads; "500,00TH PISTOL CALIBER 45 M-1911 A1/MANUFACTURED BY/REMINGTON-RAND INC. SYRACUSE. N.Y./ACCEPTED BY COLONEL F.J. ATWOOD/FOR ROCHESTER ORDNANCE DISTRICT OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH 1944". Obviously with the accompanying providence this pistol retains all it's original Remington-Rand parts such as the serrated slide stop release and serrated main spring housing, checkered thumb safety, narrow checkered hammer, and short spur grip safety. It also has the correct brown plastic wartime checkered grips. It is complete with one all blued magazine which has a small letter "R" on the lib of the base plate.