Blinged out 1911

[Justin]

Picked this up the other day was hoping someone could supply a little information. This is a 1911 that has been nickel or chrome plated. I cant really tell which one. Every Id Marking and SN has been ground off. I am not sure of the manufacture of this 1911 If I had to guess I would call it a colt due to the fact that the magazine is stamped Colt.
The story of this is that it was they guys fathers that was in the 877 Airborne Engineer Batt. The hand grips are supposed to be from an aircraft window.
The only marking left on this is what looks like a bird (penguin) and S14 or S I4.
I have bought a few 1911's in the past but nothing like this. Any help would be appreciated. (sorry for picture quality its hard to take pictures of highly reflective items.)

[Justin]

[Justin]

[Johnny Peppers]

Sad to see one in that condition. You are correct that it is a Colt Model 1911. The change from the accepting officer's initials to the Springfield acceptance mark occurred at about serial number 303,000 in May of 1918. The Springfield acceptance mark on your pistol is an eagle's head over S14. Each inspector was assigned his own number, and they were placed in the different weapons manufacturing plants.

By the law the pistol is illegal to possess with an altered or removed serial number. The chances of ever being prosecuted is virtually nil, but still illegal to possess.

The magazine was a Colt commercial magazine, but early in WWII Colt transferred a number of commercial magazines to the military contract. This might or might not be one of those magazines.

Normally a picture was put under the plexiglass grips, and were called "Sweetheart Grips".

This is a picture of an uncle taken in Germany either late in WWII or just after it was over. He had someone make the grips, and that is a picture of my aunt under the grips.

[Justin]

was the nickel/Chrome platting something somewhat common? I have never seen one done. I have a customer of mine who took his WWII 1911 down to mexico and had some crazy Mexican grips put on his complete with a gold trigger. To the point it looks like a damn cartel bosses personnel weapon. He loves it, me not so much. Also what does it do to the value? I myself prefer a standard 1911.

[Johnny Peppers]

Following WWII it was common for GI's to have their souvenir pistol nickel plated. Of course this turned all the nickel plated Lugers and P.38's into "Officer's Pistols". The nickel plating ruins their collector value today.

Before I met a friend who went on to own some really nice Lugers, he had been reading about Lugers and decided he wanted to start collecting them. At the next gunshow he couldn't believe his luck when he found a Luger described by the seller as an "Officer's Model". After he got home with his prize he found out that the nickel plating was not original to the pistol.