Bavarian Pioneer/Lifeguards Restoration

Steve Nick

Steve Nick

Well-known member
A little over a year ago I purchased this helmet which was advertised as a Prussian Pioneers helmet.
Prussian Pioneer OR's 1 Re-Sized.jpg

I purchased it knowing that it had an incorrect Wappen on it as all Pioneer troops wore helmets with silver fittings.

Prussian Wappens for line troops are the most easily found so I figured I'd find a nice silver Wappen and a silver base plate stud, a silver fitted chinstrap (not common) and a set of Kokarden and I'd have myself a nice Prussian Pioneers helmet.

In hand it turned out that the brass Prussian Wappen had been played with by re-soldering the mounting loops to fit a smaller hole spacing in the shell of the helmet. The smaller spacing told me the helmet was probably Bavarian. Checking inside the shell showed that the manufacturer was in Neu Ulm in Bavaria. There are no issue marks but there is the name of the owner penciled (Kinzelmann?) on the rear visor. I'm concluding that the helmet was a private purchase item.

The Bavarian Pioneers as well as the Eisenbahn and Telegraph Battalions plus the the Bavarian Life Guards Regiment wore Silver fittings.

At this point I have sourced a Silver Bavarian OR's Wappen (from Germany) , a NCO's Reich Kokarde and silver base plate stud (from the parts box), and a chinstrap with original silver fittings salvaged from the battlefields of Tannenberg (via Wojtek who does a superb job conditioning the leather). Just need to find a Bavarian NCO's Kokarde and the transition back to originality will be complete.

DSC_1672 Re-Sized.jpgDSC_1673-Re-Sized.jpgDSC_1678 Re-Sized.jpgDSC_1676 Re-Sized.jpg
 
What a fantastic job (y)

Did you also change the visor trim ? There looks to also be a color change between the photo's . Really excellent work to bring this one back
 
John Josef said:
What a fantastic job (y)

Did you also change the visor trim ? There looks to also be a color change between the photo's . Really excellent work to bring this one back
Click to expand...

Actually, it's the same visor. The helmet must have been owned by a smoker at some point. I just cleaned off the yellowed patina to get back to the original Neusilber finish.

Thanks for commenting.
 
Steve Nick said:
Actually, it's the same visor. The helmet must have been owned by a smoker at some point. I just cleaned off the yellowed patina to get back to the original Neusilber finish.

Thanks for commenting.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the reply, that would certainly explain the color change.

Again fantastic job (y)
 
Steve- it has been fun to see your transformation of this helmet back to what it should be, great job!

James
 
Excellent helmet, congratulations Steve. It is always very satisfying for a collector to put things back to their original/proper condition. You were very lucky, that only the soldered loops were moved instead of new holes punched in the shell. 😊 I have the brother to this helmet in my collection, all complete with it’s original chin strap but unfortunately, missing the neusilber visor trim. 😕
 
Brian:

Missing the visor trim is really unfortunate. As you well know finding a trim piece that fits correctly is a long shot and finding a neusilber piece that fits is a very long shot.
 
Yes, I have exhausted all of my collector contacts...James, Amy, Alan etc. They have sent me pieces of trim but none that fit or that could be cut down to a suitable size. As usual, it is a small helmet but complete as I said. It blew me away though when I saw that perfect chin strap! I did have to restitch the visors though and the price was reasonable, it came from a dealer in Louisiana. I will keep looking.
 
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