Bill McGraw and Jay Leech were engraving at Ithaca at the time your gun was made. According to Snyder's book it took Leech about 90 minutes to engrave a Flues 1 1/2. Before WWI when Latham was Ithaca's head engraver, Ithaca engraving was much better. Ithacas engraved by Joseph Loy and Edward Latham show some of the best American factory engraving. In my opinion early(Pre-WWI) Ithacas are undervalued. These early guns exhibit some of the best engraving and checkering of any American made gun. It's a shame that post-WWI cost cuts significantly reduced engraving quality not only for Ithaca but also for LC Smith, and Fox. Fortunately, Parkers do not show a decline in post-WWI engraving quality.
