1919 Colt Commercial

[BILLY T]

bought this very nice 1911 ser#C119328 at a local gun shop.i knew that it was not correct or is it?the slide,safety,msh and slide stop are correct as far as i can tell.the grip safety is of the 1911A1 type marked R in circle on one side and RA in circle on the other.mag is two tone with no loop.barrel has only a G on the bottom.on the bottom of the slide on the flat area under the firing pin it is marker Y2 together.here is the kicker,on the left side of trigger guard it is marked VP with 5 and on the other side an C.by what i have read this means that it was sent back to colt for rebuild.pistol retains about 80% of blue and marking are sharp and edges are unbroken.if it was reblued at colt they did a great job!any thoughts on the grip safety marks and pistol in general.also there is an S at the disconector hole.thanks,billy

Information

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[Johnny Peppers]

The grip safety is from a Colt made for Argentina. Some previous owner probably changed to the longer grip safety, as the short grip safety and long hammer had a bad habit of pinching the skin between the thumb and foreginger. The VP was applied when the Colt was new, and is Colt's Verified Proof indicating that everything passed Colts inspection and testing.The 5 and C are assembler's and inspector's markings.
Can't tell you much more without pictures.

[BILLY T]

what i was going by was clawson book dated 1993 page 81 were he states 1911 pistols did not have the VP mark until they went through factory overhaul before WW2.looks like i am looking for a grip safety as i don't think the factory put this on but anything is possible as we have found out with M1 carbines.thanks for your help and if you happen to see an 1911 grip safty and don't need it please let me know.billy

[Johnny Peppers]

Your pistol is a Government Model, or commercial model, and Clawson is referring to a Model 1911 that might be sent back to Colt for rebuild after it left the military and had the VP applied. The VP was applied to commercial pistols from about 1905, but did not appear on the military pistols until 1937.
Your pistol being a commercial model came new from the factory with the VP.

[Johnny Peppers]

Forgot to add, but the grip safety coming from the factory would not be possible, as it was from an Argentine contract in 1927.
The M1 Carbines went through a massive rebuild program following WWII, and had the parts from different manufacturers swapped around.