Yes, Doc, if your gun is a hammerless (Crass) according to Livermore’s records it would be one of 755 made that year. And depending on the actual serial number it could be a very early Crass as 1889 begins with #8788. Share with us the details of your gun if you would.
And, John, yes, the later factory fire did wipe out those 28 months of records creating the extra interesting “black hole” Ithacas. I have one of those (an 1891 NIG) and I’m always on the lookout for others.
From Walt’s 2nd edition combined NIG/Crass numbers we find that 8447 guns were made from 1889-1891.
Livermore’s production numbers for those same three years are 7798. (BTW I’ve come across this before where specific serial numbers do not match up with known total production numbers. This is actually why I can’t determine the total Crass and Lewis numbers for 1901.)
Livermore’s notebook numbers, however, do allow us to know the breakout of NIG and Crass for those years. The 7798 breaks out to 5294 NIG’s (1809, 1609, 1876) and 2504 Crass (755, 883, 866).
As for the early differences and the existence of 4 & 5 screw models, I have been looking at the new examples that Walt found but I wouldn’t venture an opinion just yet.
Interesting topic, indeed.
