I bought this at an estate sale today having a feeling that it might be special. But I know nothing about these helmets. It came in what I believe to be its original box. It looks to have silk lining on the inside and made of a fiber material, not leather. It appears to be in great condition with the exception of a small chip on the back as shown in photos (please excuse all the finger prints). Any help is much appreciated. Also, what do you think is the approximate value?
Help Me Identify This Pickelhaube
- Thread starter Don M
- Start date
ww1czechlegion
Well-known member
Hi Don,
You hit a "home run!" Congratulations on an excellent estate sale find. It's a Baden line infantry officer helmet in superb condition.
Looks like the maker is "Erel", which was a top-tier quality visor cap manufacturer during the third reich era. This is the first time I've seen a pickelhaube made by Erel. The maker logo appears to read "Erel Fiber-Helm". Erel made fiber visors for their super quality 3rd reich officer visor caps, and it makes sense that they would have made a fiber body pickelhaube helmet.
The box that came with it is more of the type we would see used for a Busby. The pickelhaube storage cases/boxes are normally conical in shape. It's hard to say how this case was paired up with the wonderful officer pickelhaube. The case looks to be in great condition as well.
Full retail price on it would be around 2K to maybe 2.4K.
May we ask how much you paid for it, and if you're going to keep it, or if you're planning to resell it?
Best Wishes,
Alan
You hit a "home run!" Congratulations on an excellent estate sale find. It's a Baden line infantry officer helmet in superb condition.
Looks like the maker is "Erel", which was a top-tier quality visor cap manufacturer during the third reich era. This is the first time I've seen a pickelhaube made by Erel. The maker logo appears to read "Erel Fiber-Helm". Erel made fiber visors for their super quality 3rd reich officer visor caps, and it makes sense that they would have made a fiber body pickelhaube helmet.
The box that came with it is more of the type we would see used for a Busby. The pickelhaube storage cases/boxes are normally conical in shape. It's hard to say how this case was paired up with the wonderful officer pickelhaube. The case looks to be in great condition as well.
Full retail price on it would be around 2K to maybe 2.4K.
May we ask how much you paid for it, and if you're going to keep it, or if you're planning to resell it?
Best Wishes,
Alan
Last edited:
Alan nailed it as always, nice find.
James
James
John Josef
Well-known member
Alan has got ya covered. 
I can only add my congratulations; a wonderful find did they happen to have any other Militaria related items at the sale.
MFG John Josef
I can only add my congratulations; a wonderful find did they happen to have any other Militaria related items at the sale.
MFG John Josef
Stosstrupp
Active member
What a nice find great helmet 
Thanks Alan for the confirmation. I didn't quite know what I was looking at, but knew it was different; it was just in a box on a shelf. It wasn't even advertised. I had come to the estate sale looking for a cat-eyed stop sign. I paid $200 for the helmet.
I bought it with the intent to sell, but now I don't know because it's so cool. However, I might be open to offers.
Thank you John. The only other military was an iron cross that was very old. They wanted $60.Alan has got ya covered.
I can only add my congratulations; a wonderful find did they happen to have any other Militaria related items at the sale.
MFG John Josef
Was this an officers helmet?
Around what years do you think?
coert65
Well-known member
It is indeed an officer helmet.
Welcome to the forum. These helmets were custom purchase items and paid for by each individual officer. As in our times, there were “upgrades “ which could be added to the base price. In this case someone had ample funds to buy a Vulcan fibre helmet from a top maker with a perforated sweat band. Most officer helmets do not have this type of swb. Vulcan fibre is an early form of plastic and as such these helmets survive in excellent condition.
Thank you for the info. any and all help is needed
poniatowski
Well-known member
If you bought it with the intent to sell, but might not, because it's cool.... well, all I can say is, you have a super helmet there and welcome to the club! It's a fascinating hobby. So, congratulations!
argonne
Well-known member
Hi,
Such prices are H. Weitze prices
I think 1700-1900 would be OK from private to private.
And one more thing: this special liner with small holes at the front are well known for French collectors to be post war...Specially made for vet ceremonies, processions or many other post war official or inofficial meetings. That is explaining too the maker mark EREL
Philippe
ww1czechlegion
Well-known member
Hi,
Such prices are H. Weitze prices
I think 1700-1900 would be OK from private to private.
And one more thing: this special liner with small holes at the front are well known for French collectors to be post war...Specially made for vet ceremonies, processions or many other post war official or inofficial meetings. That is explaining too the maker mark EREL
Philippe
You did read/understand that I said "full retail price", correct?
Yes, of course, there is a difference between a "full retail price" and a "collector to collector price" or a "private person to private person price." I did not quote a "private to private price" or a "collector to collector price" here for new member Don M. I should have made that distinction.
As a side note, I believe that a H. Weitze price on this helmet would actually be higher than the "full retail price" that I quoted.
When I gave the retail price quote here, I was thinking more in line with what our friends R. & R. of Age of Kings might ask for such a helmet if they were to offer it for sale, in comparison to the retail prices they ask on their helmets offered for sale.
Certain people can get higher prices than others can, because they're famous, or because of the knowledge they possess, or because of their reputation, or other factors. And some retail dealers choose not to price items as much as H. Weitze does.
I have no problem agreeing that a "private to private" price would be 1700 to 1900 for the helmet.
When I initially posted about this helmet, I did not know if the Erel company existed in the WW1 era or not. I did not research their company history to discover what year the company came into existence.
Here is a quick result of my search on the history of EREL company:
"The Robert Lubstein company was founded in Berlin, Germany, and became a prominent hat manufacturer in the early 20th century. Around 1921, the company began using the acronym EREL for one of its product lines, while also producing caps under the full "Robert Lubstein" name until 1939. After 1939, all production was consolidated under the EREL brand, with manufacturing moved to a facility at Berlin N.O. 55 Heinrich-Roller Straße 16-18, where it remained throughout World War II."
My question is: Was this "EREL FIBER HELM" the same company as the Robert Lubstein company, better known by its brand name "EREL"?
Maybe our Germany based friends here will have better internet search results than what I am having from here in the U.S.A, I hope that someone can find out about the company history of Robert Lubstein, and when the company actually came into existence, and whether or not they manufactured pickelhaube helmets during WW1, or if that production began in the 1920's or the 1930's. It would be great to learn when this helmet was made.
I understand about the ventilation on the sweatband as generally being thokkught of as being used on helmets from the post-war era used for veteran purposes as you have nicely mentioned here.
I recall the discussion on the Braunschweig helmet of Princess Victoria Louise, found here:
This helmet belonged to Viktoria Luise, Wilhelm II's daughter and Princess of Braunschweig. She donated it to a museum in 1961 (see the original tag). It is probably a post-war model. The "face" (skull) looks more rounded, less emaciated that on earlier examples (compare with Adler's helmet). I have added a picture from Junker's post-war catalogue. Definition is poor but you can guess that the shape of the death head is similar. The Haarbusch has the same provenance.
Bruno
...
Bruno
...Best Wishes,
Alan
Last edited: