Beautiful work Brian!!
Lefever Arms Co. of Syracuse, New York, was bought out by a shell corporation in early 1916, and all the assets and the rights to use the Lefever name in the manufacture of shotguns was moved to Ithaca. A short time later ownership of this corporation, Lefever Arms Co., Inc. was transferred to the owners of Ithaca Gun Co. -- George Livermore, Louis Smith, Claude Smith, Paul Livermore and Eunice Smith. Through 1919, this corporation, operating within the plant of Ithaca Gun Co. finished and sold off the remaining inventory of side-plate Lefever guns. In 1921, this corporation introduced the lower priced Lefever Nitro Special, still operating as a separate corporation. The Model 2 single barrel and the Model 3 SBT were added to the Lefever line in 1927, and the Model 4 double barrel vent rib trap gun in 1929. Also in 1929, the family formed another corporation, Western Arms Corp., to build an even lower priced double the Long Range Double. Lefever and Western continued to operate as separate corporations into 1933. By 1934, Lefever and Western guns are marked as being made by the Lefever or Western Branches of Ithaca Gun Co., Inc.
The A-Grades were pretty short lived. The Model 5 Lefever A-Grade was introduced in 1934. The following year they began offering the Skeet version, and pictured the Model 5 A-Grade with the beavertail forearm and single trigger. In Ithaca's January 25, 1936, catalogues and price lists the began calling it the Model 6 Special Skeet Gun. By the February 8, 1939, Ithaca Gun Co. catalogues and price lists the Model 6 Special Skeet Gun is listed as "Discontinued". By the 1940 catalogues and price lists the Lefever Model 5 A-Grade is gone as well, and the Lefever Model 1 Nitro Special is now shown with the profiled receiver of the late A-Grades --
