exceeding an analog ammeter printed scale
You should expect that exceeding the rated current of 1A by even a small amount will instantly damage the meter. There is no other safe assumption given the limited information you have. So, you must limit the current flowing through the meter.

There are two fairly easy ways to do this. You can add a shunt resistor in parallel with the meter so that most of the current will flow through the shunt. For example, if you add a shunt resistor equal to one-fourth of the meter's resistance then you will actually have a full-scale reading of 5A while only 1A goes through the meter.

The other approach is to add a diode clamp across the meter so that if the voltage across the meter becomes too high then most of the current will pass through the diode and not the meter. However, this only works if the voltage across the meter happens to be as large as the forward voltage of a diode, about 0.3V for a Schottky diode or about 0.7V for a silicon diode.

In either case, be sure to consider the total current and power ratings for the shunt element.