This is a nice original example of a pre-war commercial pistol as produced by the Colt factory in late 1919. These pistols are of the same configuration as the early WWII military models without the U.S. Government acceptance proofs. The left side of the slide is marked with the Colt two-line patent/address markings with the "Rampant Colt" in the middle of the markings and the right side of the slide is marked (in front of and below the ejection port) "COLT AUTOMATIC CALIBRE. 45". The left side of the frame has the "VP" proof inside a triangle on the side of the trigger guard bow. The right side of the frame is marked, "GOVERNMENT MODEL" over the "C" prefix serial number. The top of the frame is marked with an "S" for the in-house Colt inspectors proofs. The barrel is WWII High Standard replacement marked "p" and "HS" on the left and right sides respectively. It has the early walnut checkered grips, flat mainspring housing with lanyard loop at the bottom, wide checkered Colt hammer and the checkered slide stop release. It is complete with a WWII blued replacement magazine and a sales receipt from The Gun Shop in New Brunswick, N.J. on February 3, 1962.

Extremely fine overall with 90% plus of the original pre-war Colt blue finish remaining with wear on the edges and high spots, the front end of the slide towards the muzzle and with some very slight thinning on the front and rear grip straps. The grips are also in very fine condition showing mild wear on right panel with only a couple of dings on the left side. Mechanically excellent.