The Singer Manufacturing Company, best known for its iconic sewing machines, received an Educational Contract to product 500 M1911A1 pistols on April 17, 1940. They set up production for the gun, producing every part except the grip panels in-house. The 500 pistols were delivered in December 1941, with a serial number range of S800001 – S800500. They were probably the best quality 1911s made during the war, with a fine polish and DuLite bluing. A followup contract for 15,000 guns was written, but almost immediately cancelled when it was realized that Singer already had higher-priority contracts for artillery directors and not enough manufacturing capacity to execute both.
The tooling produced for these pistols was transferred to Remington-rand and eventually used by the Ithaca company to make their 1911s. The 500 Singer 1911s were issued out to the military and used through the war, making them extremely rare today, especially in excellent condition like this one.
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