This is a very nice example of a early Colt commercial M1911 Government Model pistol, that was made in late 1913 or early 1914. Based on their early success of the standard military M1911 pistols Colt marketed a commercial version of that pistol for sale. These early Colts all exhibited the desirable high polish blue finish with checkered walnut grips. The left side of the slide has the early two line, two block Colt patent and address markings that consist of "PATENTED APR. 20. 1897/ SEPT. 9.1902. DEC.19.1905. FEB.14.1911/ next to "COLT'S PT. F.A. MFG. CO./HARTFORD.CT.U.S.A." all in the early serif letters and numbers with the Colt Rampant horse logo behind the slide serrations. The right side of the slide is marked in two lines, in front of the ejection port "COLT AUTOMATIC/CALIBRE 45". The right side of the frame is roll-marked with the serial number of "C4809 with "GOVERNMENT MODEL" farther down on the frame extension. It is fitted with all the early parts that consist of the early style rounded front sight and rounded rear sight, checkered slide stop release, the early 1914 thin pattern checkered thumb safety, the wide checkered Colt hammer with the long smooth trigger and flat main spring housing. The barrel is an early blued unmarked Colt commercial model with the polished chamber area. It is fitted with the early diamond pattern checkered grips and it comes with one single half-tone blued magazine.

Very fine with 75% of the original pre-war high polished blue finish remaining overall, with even honest wear overall the parts showing thinning and blue loss on the grip straps, the top and front portion of the sides of the slide. The grips are in fine condition, with sharp checkering showing only wear overall. A very nice example of a very early commercial M1911 automatic pistol.