Fort de la Pompelle

I once heard that the reason the Friese collection is stil intact and open to the public is related to a specific French law, if a collection is really great, the French government can declare it of national interest, although private its parts can de sold but may not leave the country, thus making possibilities for international auctions unfavourable,
Often in these cases the inheritance is sold to the state and becomes accessible to the public. Not so Nice for the family of the late collector , but great for us being able to see the collection in the museum
 
911car said:
Thank you for the photo reportage, Tony.
You can see the original display in the video below. I also liked that previous setting better because I would ask the curator to open the window for me and he would let me grab a helmet and examine it....
As Khukri reminded us, this fabulous collection of 550 helmets was amassed by Charles Friese, an architect in the city of Nantes, in the 1950's and 1960's, when hardly anybody would care about those "casques boches" (the first Pickelhaube that was given to me when I was a kid had been found a long time before by an uncle on the head of... a scarecrow, on the countryside near Nantes).
I met an old architect in Nantes a few years ago. He was of the same generation as Friese and used to know him very well. He told me that his collection was then presented in his own professional office, walls being covered with shelves!

Click to expand...
Bruno
Thanks for this post
Steve
 
Memories...
I remember the old Ieper/Ypers cloth hall Sanctuary Museum- Flanders; Belgium before the modern In Flanders Fields Museum came. Every uniform button or cap insignia was tagged. Handwritten with pen and ink.
-The Halen Battlefield Museum: The smell of horse sweat and leather; gun oil...
 
Khukri said:
Memories...
I remember the old Ieper/Ypers cloth hall Sanctuary Museum- Flanders; Belgium before the modern In Flanders Fields Museum came. Every uniform button or cap insignia was tagged. Handwritten with pen and ink.
-The Halen Battlefield Museum: The smell of horse sweat and leather; gun oil...
Click to expand...
And so do I, I also liked the Cloth hall museum, the way it was before much better than it is now. Just like the museum in Sanctuary wood. I even had a nice conversation with the owner of that museum, he passed away later. I also like the museum in Hooge, visited that one also many times, nice display's, small but very nice. Memorial museum Passchendaele 1917 is also worth a visit though.
 
I visited targette few years ago, very old school in a nice way, small door, and ticked counter, in plywood, nothing professional, and got the impression only few people visit it, because I was alone in the building , they even had to switch on the lights for me, (but maybe I was in low season?) and after that humble entry, a big hall literally stuffed from floor to ceiling with an incredible collection. That impression that it is just to much for your mind to grasp, really something to come back for...
 
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