Maple Creek
Member
Here are photos of an American Pickelhaube that I picked up at the SOS a few weeks ago. For those of you who saw this piece in Louisville, you’ll recall that the visor and cape were detached. I sent the piece to Cameron Laughlin for re-stitching and he did a masterful job.
According to the seller’s story, this piece was found in an attic in Maine and was sold recently as part of an estate sale. I have no other information about the thing’s history. If anybody has ideas about which militia unit may have used this type of helmet, I’d love to hear them.
There is very little information that I’ve seen in collector literature about American pickelhaubes. Joe R. sent me an article from a recent edition of Military Collector and Historian written by A.M. de Quesada. There’s a helmet at the end of this article attributed to the Rhode Island Light Artillery that strongly resembles my pickelhaube, although mine lacks the “A” on the shield. In his article Quesada speculates that RI artillery piece is of German manufacturer.
Cameron, who has had many pickelhaubes pass through his hands, presented compelling evidence indicating that my helmet is an American produced piece. Furthermore, features of the helmet suggest that it was produced by the Horstmann company. I’ve included his interesting and informed observations below. The vintage is probably 1880s.
“First off, it's a far later example than most of the others I've seen--probably 1880s. I believe it was made in this country, as opposed to being an imported German manufacture. And, more specifically, I expect it was crafted by Wm. Horstmann & Co. Its brass fittings were never gilded. It is also the largest nineteenth century American dress helmet I've ever encountered--a true size 7 5/8, and so-marked. (That's enormous even by contemporary standards)
The Pickelhaube body appears to me to have been made by a trained and talented craftsman who didn't make leather-bodied spiked helmets every day. While the finished helmet certainly has the look of a German Pickelhaube, some of its details I've never seen on the hundreds of Hun helmets upon which I've worked. For example, the liner looks German, but is only tacked in place at eight locations with a single large stitch. I have never seen a German liner attached in this fashion; they are invariably sewn around their entire perimeters. Too, the skiving around the shell's interior is far more irregular than that seen on European products--evidently accomplished with a tobacco knife rather than a French edge skiver.
Though the Quesada article is interesting, I disagree with both its historical context and some of its details. Just because a spiked helmet looks like a German Pickelhaube does not mean it was made in Germany. American companies were quite capable of manufacturing all the components seen on your helmet, and some firms--such as Horstmann--were able to craft everything from scratch in-house. The size inked on your shell's interior is American--not English or Continental. (In case I forget, there are also some interesting numeric inkings on the rear cape's interior, including what's evidently a company issue number.)
The die work on the frontplate looks like that of Horstmann's shops, and the plate's affixing nuts are one unique diagnostic feature. These brass nuts are fitted with an integral finger loop; of all the US and foreign helmets I've examined, I've only seen this distinctive nut on Horstmann's top-of-the-line helmets. Oh, and a similar Pickelhaube is depicted in Horstmann's first-ever print catalog, issued in--if memory serves--1877.
…I mentioned some non-standard features of your piece which hinted at American origins. Here are some more:
--The frontplate is crafted of precisely the weight of sheet brass used in stamping US M1881 dress helmet frontplates. This weight of brass sheet is approximately 2/3 that used on standard German Pickelhaube plates, and perhaps double that of the lightweight, very early American spiked helmet frontplates.
--The brads braised to the domed rivets used in affixing the spike baseplate are identical in weight to the brads found on US M1881 dress helmet sidebuttons--approximately half that of the German standard. Too, the heads of the rivets are far smaller than those ever used on Hun helms.
--The construction of the helmet differs from the German standard in one helpful (to the original craftsman, anyway) fashion: there is sufficient space between the liner attachment points (I mentioned tacking the liner, versus sewing a full seam in a previous email) and the visor and cape seams that the liner may be stitched in place last. This would have been a great time (and annoyance) saver during original construction, since the stitching order can be reversed, which is far easier. This is a feature I've fervently wished was present on German-manufactured Pickelhauben, but it was never (at least according to my observations of hundreds of spiked helmets) done in Hunland.
--An inked notation on your helmet's cape interior reads: "23 1/2". This is the measurement in inches of the approximate circumference of the helmet's interior. This measurement corresponds to a size 7 3/8 American. The other inked size notation--this time in the crown--of "7 5/8" is also an American size. However, this giant sizing was overly optimistic--even when the helmet was new and its leather yet-to-shrink. The fact that this designation may have caused problems at the time of issue is born out by the liner--which has been slit in two places, probably by the issue, for enlargement. (I was incorrect when I earlier stated that two standard liners had been spliced to fit this large shell).
--The leather liner was indifferently hand cut, with its lobes of slightly different sizes and shapes, and the drawstring holes punched in varying locations. German enlisted liners are typically quite uniform, and clicker-cut.
--The exterior finish on German Pickelhauben--even very early ones--is exquisitely crafted of many layers of tinted shellac. This time-consuming process appears to have been avoided by American suppliers. If you examine the couple of patches of damaged finish on your spiked helmet you can see that the US version of the high-gloss exterior finish is simply one or two layers of paint. This quick-and-dirty approach to exterior leather finish is identical to that observed on a 1880s Horstmann Raupenhelm which I restored recently.”
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According to the seller’s story, this piece was found in an attic in Maine and was sold recently as part of an estate sale. I have no other information about the thing’s history. If anybody has ideas about which militia unit may have used this type of helmet, I’d love to hear them.
There is very little information that I’ve seen in collector literature about American pickelhaubes. Joe R. sent me an article from a recent edition of Military Collector and Historian written by A.M. de Quesada. There’s a helmet at the end of this article attributed to the Rhode Island Light Artillery that strongly resembles my pickelhaube, although mine lacks the “A” on the shield. In his article Quesada speculates that RI artillery piece is of German manufacturer.
Cameron, who has had many pickelhaubes pass through his hands, presented compelling evidence indicating that my helmet is an American produced piece. Furthermore, features of the helmet suggest that it was produced by the Horstmann company. I’ve included his interesting and informed observations below. The vintage is probably 1880s.
“First off, it's a far later example than most of the others I've seen--probably 1880s. I believe it was made in this country, as opposed to being an imported German manufacture. And, more specifically, I expect it was crafted by Wm. Horstmann & Co. Its brass fittings were never gilded. It is also the largest nineteenth century American dress helmet I've ever encountered--a true size 7 5/8, and so-marked. (That's enormous even by contemporary standards)
The Pickelhaube body appears to me to have been made by a trained and talented craftsman who didn't make leather-bodied spiked helmets every day. While the finished helmet certainly has the look of a German Pickelhaube, some of its details I've never seen on the hundreds of Hun helmets upon which I've worked. For example, the liner looks German, but is only tacked in place at eight locations with a single large stitch. I have never seen a German liner attached in this fashion; they are invariably sewn around their entire perimeters. Too, the skiving around the shell's interior is far more irregular than that seen on European products--evidently accomplished with a tobacco knife rather than a French edge skiver.
Though the Quesada article is interesting, I disagree with both its historical context and some of its details. Just because a spiked helmet looks like a German Pickelhaube does not mean it was made in Germany. American companies were quite capable of manufacturing all the components seen on your helmet, and some firms--such as Horstmann--were able to craft everything from scratch in-house. The size inked on your shell's interior is American--not English or Continental. (In case I forget, there are also some interesting numeric inkings on the rear cape's interior, including what's evidently a company issue number.)
The die work on the frontplate looks like that of Horstmann's shops, and the plate's affixing nuts are one unique diagnostic feature. These brass nuts are fitted with an integral finger loop; of all the US and foreign helmets I've examined, I've only seen this distinctive nut on Horstmann's top-of-the-line helmets. Oh, and a similar Pickelhaube is depicted in Horstmann's first-ever print catalog, issued in--if memory serves--1877.
…I mentioned some non-standard features of your piece which hinted at American origins. Here are some more:
--The frontplate is crafted of precisely the weight of sheet brass used in stamping US M1881 dress helmet frontplates. This weight of brass sheet is approximately 2/3 that used on standard German Pickelhaube plates, and perhaps double that of the lightweight, very early American spiked helmet frontplates.
--The brads braised to the domed rivets used in affixing the spike baseplate are identical in weight to the brads found on US M1881 dress helmet sidebuttons--approximately half that of the German standard. Too, the heads of the rivets are far smaller than those ever used on Hun helms.
--The construction of the helmet differs from the German standard in one helpful (to the original craftsman, anyway) fashion: there is sufficient space between the liner attachment points (I mentioned tacking the liner, versus sewing a full seam in a previous email) and the visor and cape seams that the liner may be stitched in place last. This would have been a great time (and annoyance) saver during original construction, since the stitching order can be reversed, which is far easier. This is a feature I've fervently wished was present on German-manufactured Pickelhauben, but it was never (at least according to my observations of hundreds of spiked helmets) done in Hunland.
--An inked notation on your helmet's cape interior reads: "23 1/2". This is the measurement in inches of the approximate circumference of the helmet's interior. This measurement corresponds to a size 7 3/8 American. The other inked size notation--this time in the crown--of "7 5/8" is also an American size. However, this giant sizing was overly optimistic--even when the helmet was new and its leather yet-to-shrink. The fact that this designation may have caused problems at the time of issue is born out by the liner--which has been slit in two places, probably by the issue, for enlargement. (I was incorrect when I earlier stated that two standard liners had been spliced to fit this large shell).
--The leather liner was indifferently hand cut, with its lobes of slightly different sizes and shapes, and the drawstring holes punched in varying locations. German enlisted liners are typically quite uniform, and clicker-cut.
--The exterior finish on German Pickelhauben--even very early ones--is exquisitely crafted of many layers of tinted shellac. This time-consuming process appears to have been avoided by American suppliers. If you examine the couple of patches of damaged finish on your spiked helmet you can see that the US version of the high-gloss exterior finish is simply one or two layers of paint. This quick-and-dirty approach to exterior leather finish is identical to that observed on a 1880s Horstmann Raupenhelm which I restored recently.”
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