After following this thread down to the Ithaca comments, I can only share what I observed 20 years ago when my Elsies went to the Ithaca shop for a muzzle to butt restoration...Most of us fail to realize just how small these firms were. Ithaca was still making 37's and other products when I visited their operation, but doubles (even field grades) were never nameless. Further, we fail to realize the extent these firms cooperated with each other and shared technology and personnel.
The gentlemen at Ithaca knew exactly who had fitted each of my guns and spoke of the Hunter men as if they were merely on coffee break. They even pointed out subtle differences between my two guns and explained that each man had his own method or style when fitting up a gun. Ithaca doubles were no different. Even lowly Lefever doubles bore enough handwork to distinguish them from the more mundane products running through the Ithaca operation.
One thing that was made clear to me by Ithaca old-timers was never to say never. $25 or $30 may not seem like much today, but we're not earning $32.00 a month today. A plain field gun cost a rather affluent man nearly a months pay!
Think of it this way... A man during the first years of the 20th century would have been in deep clover had he earned $600 per year. That's $50.00 per month. The same man today might expect $5,000 per month or more. Move the decimal point on the early 1900's salary two places to the right and do the same for the $25.00 Elsie. Now one can begin to see what a bargain a Red Label is today, or that the new Ruger SXS is exactly placed where our beloved Elsies were a century ago.
So... That $1.00 option then is worth $100.00 in today's economy. And should anyone really be surprised that a "strange" option might appear on a plain old field gun? Or that a different grade of tubes might appear on a certain gun? Or that a gun couldn't be returned and fitted as per customer instructions?
Not when that request was in return for hard cash. Not when that $10.00 of then was really worth $1000.00 had it been at today's prices.
That's why I sometimes have my doubts when we pontificate about originality. That's why I have some doubts about folks when they say that field guns never left Hunter with a nickled receiver and such.
As I've shared before... One of my guns was nickled. A very high quality job! Not only did the Ithaca boys know who nickled the gun, they sent it to the same folks to have the nickle removed. They also shared that had the nickle not been done in cooperation with Hunter, the fit of certain critical components would have likely been poor.
Done as new? Done when the gun was returned to Hunter for something else? Done by a Hunter employee earning a bit for custom work on the side? I haven't a clue.
Just bear in mind that what we're seeing is glimpses into a history that we fail to fully understand. It's hard (almost impossible) to conceive the value of a dollar a century ago. It's almost beyond our imagination to fully realize just how small these companies were and that they worked as a community even as supposed rivals.
Enough! I've been too long-winded. I'm sorry.