Any idea what this 75 represents

[5thlancers]

Hi folks,
Can anyone give me some info on what this No75 stands for on the liner of this shako.
Cheers.
Kev.

[b.loree]

Very nice tschako however, I have no clue as to what this number represents. Perhaps a "movie prop" house marking??? Its obviously officer private purchase so it is doubtful that it could be a Regt mark of some kind.

[Peter_Suciu]

Museum catalog number?

[J.LeBrasseur]

Nice Shako!!

James

[5thlancers]

Thanks for your help guys, I thought it looked contemporary to the shako, perhaps I'll never know for certain, there's also what looks like the number 34 on the inner peak.
Cheers.

Kev.

[b.loree]

The shape of the numerals is certainly Germanic and of the period. We see this style on shoulder straps, uberzugs etc.

[Jim Newman]

I picked up an old and weathered M16 Stahlhelm 5 or 10 years back (since gave it to a freind, I could still get pictures) which had a similar two digit number inside the lower rear of the helmet. It definately looked like the number was period applied. The most reasonable explaination I found was that it was a rack number. So each guy would have a rack or locker with a matching number to his helmet.

Don't know how accurate that was but as I say, it was the best guess I ran across.

Jim

[b.loree]

A picture of that Jim, would appeal to our stahlhelme collectors here. Pictures are actual living proof and I know that they can be manipulated in today's digital world but who would care about an old helmet number? Particularly in this area of collecting, pictures help to confirm or cast doubt upon items that come up for sale. The whole ebay thing is based on accurate fotos.

[5thlancers]

I do like a good detective story.

[poniatowski]

Head size?

The rack number sounds good, but would an officer do that? IQ? Year of birth?

Who knows? Maybe this poor fellow lost a Tschako once in a mix up of similar headgear and put the big "75" in there to differentiate it from others...

If it were an enlisted helmet, there would be no end of possible reasons, but why an officer would do that is beyond me. My thought is that it's some sort of odd personal marking.

Ron

[KAGGR#1]

Years ago
These helmets , uniforms and cloth visor dress hats
were worth next to nothing .

Costume shops and movie houses had tons of our material
to rent out .
I have owned in the past quite a few of these .
All 100 % original .I saw and owned Imperial Russian Kurassiere
officers Kollers .
A friend , Mike Parker would go over to the place owned by Bob R.
out in Calif.
Mike would give me a weekly report .
I G Kurassiere officers dress hats
Husaren officers feldgrau visor hats with 2 rows of piping
Husaren uniforms
seems there was a load of L G H R uniforms
enlisted and N C O
I also saw helmets and uniforms brought down to the early
OVMS shows from Canada . They all had museum inventory ink stamps
I got a complete H R 7 officers outfit
dress hat
uniforms with correct shoulder straps
even the officers headdress
His name was on the tailors label inside the coat
and he was listed in the Rang list

It all later went to an important private German collection .

If I can locate the photos
I will post them

this is what was called the "good old days "

Brian might know this story

Steve

[b.loree]

I can confirm the Canadian part of the story....those items were"stolen" out of the Canadian War Museum by one dealer who for some reason was given access to their collection and store rooms. He and his buddy just walked out with the stuff and threw it into his station wagon. I don't know why he was trusted with this, perhaps he had a friend on staff? Anyway, I just heard about this through collector gossip as I was beginning to collect, I was warned about him. Even so, I did meet him once and visited his offices. He showed my a beautiful Baden Arty officer helme he had for sale but I did not have the cash. His reputation was destroyed by the scandal although he tried to stay in the game and set up an antiques store in Cookstown Ontario, that lasted for about a year and then closed. His name I believe was John M. This was in the late 1980's.

[KAGGR#1]

Correct Brian
His name was John M.
That was years ago
and he made no secret about the items
sold them in the open at the OVMS shows
so I and others who bought them
had no idea what he was doing
He said that he had traded with the museum
and they were from their "surplus or dups "

Steve

[b.loree]

Yes, he did a lot of damage to the Cdn War Museum pickelhaube collection as far as I am concerned. Tony can attest to the fact that what is displayed pickelhaube wise is not very good and not all original. Of course, one also has to take into account that the museum is dedicated to the Canadian Forces involved in all of the world conflicts not just WW1 and captured German pieces. As Steve said, this stuff had little or no value before 1980.