Hi Guys
This is pretty fresh to the collection having arrived last Friday courtesy of the UPS man. It was offered on EBAY on a buy-it-now auction with a fair asking price and reasonable enough shipping. So, I hit the button and now it's ours.
After the unwrapping process I took a good look at him and have to say I'm a happy guy. To my eye its a very straight-forward example of an unmolested, issue quality helmet. The brass fittings are proper, the metal patina matches well and the visor and neckguard are securely sewn. Generally with these old helmets there is usually some issue to be dealt with or allowance to be made. In this particular instance the right hand portion of the chinstrap is missing its very last segment, the one with the little connecting button on it. That will be a project for another day, or, more likely I'll just leave him as is. Beyond that it shows the typical swept-back look to the kugel and stem with the top being slightly pushed down from poor handling at some point. The original Prussian kokarde may have had a repaint to the white, if so, it looks to have been done a long time ago. A curious point is that the ventilator has been twisted from the sides to almost the front. This is a modification which I have seen before on some of these early-man helmets. Perhaps an attempt to provide better ventilation for the wearer back in the day.
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The liner is complete and fairly sound with a wear spot on his left side. Real good news is that all of the interior fittings but one are of the stirrup type including those holding the wappen in place. Each has its own near identical zinc coated steel washer beneath it. The only oddball is the square nut securing the bottom of the rear spine, but that's OK, those are legit too. No unit markings in the neckguard, that's too bad as it's always a fun project to research service history.
The little R2-D2 guy sitting next to the helmet in the first photo is an interesting relic in it's own right. It was not a part of the helmet's purchase, just another object collecting its share of dust in the war room. It is constructed of a small hollow cannon ball resting on three canister projectiles. Affixed to the front are two small brass plaques, Bomb.t de Strasbourg 1870. Maybe an inkwell, perhaps sold in souvenir shops to the curious when visiting the area.
I hope you like'em, thanks for looking.
Larry
This is pretty fresh to the collection having arrived last Friday courtesy of the UPS man. It was offered on EBAY on a buy-it-now auction with a fair asking price and reasonable enough shipping. So, I hit the button and now it's ours.
After the unwrapping process I took a good look at him and have to say I'm a happy guy. To my eye its a very straight-forward example of an unmolested, issue quality helmet. The brass fittings are proper, the metal patina matches well and the visor and neckguard are securely sewn. Generally with these old helmets there is usually some issue to be dealt with or allowance to be made. In this particular instance the right hand portion of the chinstrap is missing its very last segment, the one with the little connecting button on it. That will be a project for another day, or, more likely I'll just leave him as is. Beyond that it shows the typical swept-back look to the kugel and stem with the top being slightly pushed down from poor handling at some point. The original Prussian kokarde may have had a repaint to the white, if so, it looks to have been done a long time ago. A curious point is that the ventilator has been twisted from the sides to almost the front. This is a modification which I have seen before on some of these early-man helmets. Perhaps an attempt to provide better ventilation for the wearer back in the day.
[/img]
The liner is complete and fairly sound with a wear spot on his left side. Real good news is that all of the interior fittings but one are of the stirrup type including those holding the wappen in place. Each has its own near identical zinc coated steel washer beneath it. The only oddball is the square nut securing the bottom of the rear spine, but that's OK, those are legit too. No unit markings in the neckguard, that's too bad as it's always a fun project to research service history.
The little R2-D2 guy sitting next to the helmet in the first photo is an interesting relic in it's own right. It was not a part of the helmet's purchase, just another object collecting its share of dust in the war room. It is constructed of a small hollow cannon ball resting on three canister projectiles. Affixed to the front are two small brass plaques, Bomb.t de Strasbourg 1870. Maybe an inkwell, perhaps sold in souvenir shops to the curious when visiting the area.
I hope you like'em, thanks for looking.
Larry
