Courtesy of Researcher
Up into early 1915, the No. 1 1/2 had the frame with the roll-stamped dog with company name and a bit of zig-zag border engraving with Damascus barrels, while the Field Grade, No. 1 and the No. 1 Special just had the roll-stamped dog with company name. Field Grade had Smokeless Powder Steel and a half-pistol grip stock. The No. 1 had Twist steel barrels and the No. 1 Special had Cockerill Steel barrels. In mid-1915, Ithaca Gun Co. introduced the bold floral engraving on the No. 1 1/2 and added the option of Krupp Fluid Steel barrels.
The entry-level Flues Model Ithaca doubles, the Field Grade, the No. 1, the No. 1 Special and the No. 1 1/2 were in a constant state of flux from 1915 through 1919 as Ithaca ran out of composite iron and steel barrel tubes and of course through that time frame Krupp barrels fell out of favor in the U.S. In a couple of catalogs the No. 1 had the zig-zag border engraving that prior to mid-1915 had been on the No. 1 1/2, and they all got steel barrels as the European sources of Twist and Damascus barrels dried up due to the Great War. By late 1919 catalogs Ithaca Gun Co. had simplified the line. The Field Grade got a capped pistol grip stock, the No. 1 Special and the No. 1 1/2 were gone and the "New" No. 1 had the floral engraving of the 1915 to 1918 No. 1 1/2, with "Fluid Steel" barrels. How much these changes in the catalogs led or lagged what the workers on the factory floor were building is anyone's guess. That is how the No. 1 remained well into the NID period until the No. 1 and 3 were both dropped circa 1935.
