Thanks for the comment Walt.
Would it be fair to guess that when Ithaca started offering/providing some of the grade 1 smallbores with Krupp barrels and basic 'field' engraving that they chose to add a bit of 'flair' which was the floral engraving?
As most companies considered Krupp barrels an upgrade, I'm thinking that they just didn't want to give them away... though they seemed to at some point.