Conservation of a Brass Pickelhaube after a recent buy

[b.loree]

DD a photo of what you are describing would also be helpful. The wappen holes in these government issued helmets usually have brass grommets. Officers were required to buy their own helmets, "private purchase". These and other private purchase helmets do not have grommets. Generally if you could afford it, one could buy a better quality helmet.....gilt fittings, silk liner etc. even if you were not a fully commissioned officer. As a result, we find many PP helmets with a mixture of officer and OR's fittings. I must warn you D of the dreaded disease we call "Haubitis", you start with one as in my case but end up with 42. I am down to 26 now but there is NO cure! Other poor souls find themselves with 100+ hauben! So beware!

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

So the plate on mine is incorrect or are the markings confusing?.....still a newbie and interested

Markings make sense to me. Originally Issued to GR10 (Wappen below worn up to 1910 as mentioned) and the the gb stamp indicates it went to a repair depot. Then was issued to a different Armee Korps with a standard Line eagle Wappen.

 

[DoneDoing]

Ah that made me laugh, most collecting fields are compulsive whether we like it or not.....I'm a huge collector of a view different fields so that's why I laughed.
Sometimes I just buy things to learn and then turn them over....do you suffer from that?

I've enclosed that image.

Markings make sense to me. Originally Issued to GR10 (Wappen below worn up to 1910 as mentioned) and the the gb stamp indicates it went to a repair depot. Then was issued to a different Armee Korps with a standard Line eagle Wappen.

Aw wow, thanks for that.
So my wappen would be called a 'standard line eagle'?

 

[Tony without Kaiser]

DD yes that is the collector term.

If you are keen to learn (clearly) I will suggest my website Kaiser’s Bunker. Everything we have covered in this thread is available there. You should check out the guides at the bottom of the Home Page, there are some on Wappen, helmet evolution etc. You might find it a helpful resource.

 

[b.loree]

I would second Tony's recommendation, the Bunker is the best English reference source on Pickelhauben available on line. There is a huge amount of valuable information there. Even after 40 years of collecting helmets and Imperial German militaria, I still track down information on Tony's site. Regarding your wappen holes, I have seen that a number of times....nothing wrong there. We now know thanks to Tony that the helmet was repaired and reissued with a Prussian line infantry brass wappen.

 

[poniatowski]

I have a war bond helmet marked to GR 1 with a line plate (M15). The holes were enlarged. II don't know if that was during a re-work, but I don't think the war bond people would've bothered, so I think it's original to that helmet (?). Also an earlier Grenadier. This one has the holes for the line eagle plugged and the grenadier eagle mounted. The leather inside is too dark to make out any markings, but there's either a '6' or '9' on the reinforcement in the dome.

 

[DoneDoing]

DD yes that is the collector term.

If you are keen to learn (clearly) I will suggest my website Kaiser’s Bunker. Everything we have covered in this thread is available there. You should check out the guides at the bottom of the Home Page, there are some on Wappen, helmet evolution etc. You might find it a helpful resource.

Yes I discovered your amazing site a few years ago and helped me visually when I was acquiring parts for this pickelhaube.
It's the terminology of collectors and forums that I'm trying to understand as well.