If you don't plan to shoot it, find one, any one, with a beautiful bluing job.
I have two Colt series 80's from the 1980's. Each of them required gunsmith work to operate correctly. Just based on examination of the parts in my Detective Specials, Colts prior to 1970 are the ones to own. It is apparent from my 1970's Detective Special that factory equipment was obsolete and wearing out. The internals to my DS look like they have been carved out from soap flakes. Real rough file marks, indistinct edges. I think extra large chunks of unfinished internal parts were being handed to assemblers, and they had to carve them to fit. Older Colts, if any parts required a file, it must have been a swipe, no more. Older parts look precise.
Incidentally, had one of those fingers break on a Colt collet bushing on a new Colt Combat Elite. Replaced the collet bushing on my SS 1911 with an Ed Brown drop in part. Worked great.
The SS 1911, the series 80 firing pin block jammed up in the slide.
this negated the function of the firing pin block. Not wanting to find new, novel failure mechanisms with a failed series 80 mechanism, I removed the series 80 parts and installed a spacer in the frame.
My Colt Combat Elite peened its frame out in 3000 rounds, all due to early unlock and bad timing. Colt replaced the frame but not the excessive recoil due to early unlock. Sent the 1911 off to Wilson Combat and paid more money for the work they did, then the original cost of the Combat Elite. Sad to say, Wilson Combat knew more about 1911's than Colt, and after the work they did, the Combat Elite is reliable and accurate. I always liked the two tone appearance and I had the blended Bomar, new front sight, the beavertail, a new hammer, and a match barrel installed. The timing is correct and the Combat Elite is no longer peening its frame out.
A buddy of mine had a "Tactical Elite", a series 80 pistol equally as expensive as a Combat Elite, and made around the same time as mine. It has a factory created half ring in the barrel.
See that shadow forward of the barrel hood? That is a factory dent right at one of the lug recesses. The cutting tool must have been pressed down too hard cutting the lug recess and left a partial ring. This is extremely bad and sloppy manufacturing in my opinion. And very bad that it passed Quality Control and was shipped.
I don't own any older 1911 Colts, nor later. Had my fill of them with just two 1911's. And my Clackamus Kimber Custom classic was far superior to any factory Colt 1911. Hard to understand what a big badda boom the Clackamus Kimber Custom Classic created on the market. It had everything you had to pay gunsmiths to do on a Colt, and it not only did not rattle like a Colt, it was as tight as gunsmith built NM 1911's.
However, the older Colts have great finishes, and if all you want is a pretty pistol, just go find one. Bring lots of money. Based on my Colt revolvers from the 1930's, the charcoal bluing back then is to kill for. The polishing is precise and the blue color from period charcoal bluing has a vastly superior blue appearance than any modern bluing. You have to see it to appreciate it. Expect to pay $$$$$$ for an excellent condition 1911 from that period.
Just don't shoot it, the value in vintage Colt 1911's is in the finish, not how they shoot.
A Gold Cup National Match is 1/3 the price of a "high end" designer 1911's and for my purposes is actually better - I shoot my own reloaded ammo almost exclusively and never ever have any jams, misfeeds or hiccups with it. 
