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Oh, dear. A shiny finish is likely nickel plating - if not bumper chrome - and one reason the markings are indistinct is because it was done by an incompetent who buffed the metal too hard. Cheap white grips are, well, cheap. Such stuff is very hard on the collector's interest and dollar value. But you have to remember that when it was done, it was not desecration of a valuable antique, they were just trying to make an obsolete gun look flashy.
A gun this old - assuming it is a real Century XIX Colt and not a modern copy - was made when black powder was all that was available. Current production .45 Colt ammunition is pretty lightly loaded and the "Cowboy" stuff is even milder. But it still generates more pressure than black and you would be stressing the gun to shoot it. Colts were always well made and it might hold up to some use with smokeless but I'm not telling you it will. There are factory loads with fake black powder that would be easier on the works, assuming that gunsmith thinks it is in shooting condition at all.
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