I got the helmet back from Turner, Laughlin & Associates. I really like the result the restoration work. Actually, I’ve been mesmerized by this object ever since it arrived in my office a few days ago.
The restorer had to address several very tricky problems. Straightening the crown and the eagle were particular challenges.
I lucked out with parts. We were able to replace the handful of missing chinscales with originals. The silk liner is a period original and fit perfectly in the original leather band. I’m still looking for one original cloverleaf/trefoil, but the current replacement is a high-quality reproduction, difficult to distinguish from an original.
There are a few interesting things that I’ve learned about this piece from this forum and from forensic analysis. We think the helmet is a relatively rare wartime manufacture. This is because the silver-plating on wartime eagles was very thin and wore off easily. This example had none of its original silver-plating. The shell is unusually thin tombak material, which apparently is another characteristic of helmets made during the war. Interestingly, the nut that holds the eagle to the shell is made from a repurposed piece of vintage typeset, possibly a letter “H.” This also suggests a possible wartime exigency.
As discussed, it appears that this helmet was an officer candidate/one-year volunteer piece that was upgraded. We assumed this because of the pattern of holes for the eagle/spike base. Another clue is that the kokarden were other ranks type, but upgraded by adding an officer’s silver ring and backing typical of officer’s style. I think is what RON was noticing at the start of this thread when he wondered whether the kokarden were for NCO. This seems like a modification that would have been more trouble than it was worth, but it may be another example of a wartime measure required by materials scarcity.
There are no stamps or markings on the shell or other parts.
I went back and forth in my thinking about refinishing the eagle. In the end I decided to go ahead and restore the thing to its former glory. The matte silver finish is very close to the original appearance of these helmets. Over time they tended to get shinny as they got polished and handled. Of course, many that you see in collections are re-plated. Sometimes you can see this kind of finish on very well preserved examples or in period photos.
