Tamid,
It was the Lefever NAME that Ithaca was after.
While Ithaca did assemble some guns of the original Lefever Arms design (Dan Lefever's design), they did so primarily by piecing together guns from existing parts stock. How many of these they made is a source of debate among Lefever fans, but it was only a small percentage, and the serial numbers vary sporadically, but the earliest guns of Ithaca assembly are in the 38xxx range. But understand that that doesnt mean that Ithaca "took over" Lefever production at that point. It just means examples start to be peppered in starting in that range.
After finishing those Syracuse Lefevers there was a gap in time of a couple years before Ithaca then introduced a brand new line of guns of THEIR OWN design, which they "branded" Lefever Nitro Specials. They also made Lefever branded trap guns, and the short-lived "A-Grade."
See Walt Snyder's book for a breakdown of production and serial numbers, but suffice to say, aside from the small number of original side plate "Syracuse Lefevers" Ithaca assembled from parts (roughly circa 1916-1919), all of the "Lefever Arms Co" guns which say "Ithaca, NY" have absolutely nothimg to do with Dan Lefever, or any designs he ever created.
The owners of Ithaca were shrewd business men. They acquired the very best brand name of American doubles, and then used that name to sell the heck out of a mid-priced line of guns. In fact, Ithaca made roughly 4x the number of "Lefever" guns than Dan Lefever ever did.
Such was the value of Dan's name in those days. In earlier years Dan Lefever built the finest doubles in America.
- Nudge
