How?

[SkipperJohn]

How is it that this helmet is so beat up on the outside and so immaculate on the inside?
Aged copy perhaps?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Huge-Size-60-M1915-Baden-Enlisted-Pickelhaube-Spiked-Helmet/302634687637?hash=item46766edc95:g:j~MAAOSwg31af3Jt

Seller says that something was leaning against it in storage??

John

 

[Jaap Verduijn]

John, my first impression is that this might very well be a good helmet that was treated badly. Maybe it spent a lot of time in f'rinstance a hot attic, which will have a far stronger influence on the outside (shellac etcetera) than on the inside. Doesn't look artificially aged to me - at least not on the pictures.

Second impression: the stamps however... they seem to be in an unusual place. And size 60... that would be the largest real Mannschafts Pickelhaube I've ever encountered. This size would, I believe, be more often encountered with replica's for present day people with big heads, than for a Mannschafts helmet in 1916. With an original Offizier's helmet I would be slightly less surprised at the size - they generally came from well-fed healthy families. But for your average Heinz, Fritz or Wilhelm it's large.

All this having been said, I don't see anything really convincing that might appoint this a fake - no proof, only some suspicions.

Lemme make a disclaimer: I've been away from active collecting for a long time, so the chance of my opinion being wrong is definitely present.

 

[aicusv]

Looks to me that it sat some place near a window or something that heated up the surface of that left rear corner. As to the size, I currently have two size 60 helmets in my collection. I believe the reason why we see small sizes around today is that all the "normal" sized helmets got used. The person I've met who takes the largest hat size, and the one who I've met that take the smallest are both from the same town in Germany.

A few years ago we were cleaning out an old storage area and came across some bundles of surplus uniform trousers from WW2. They were all sizes around 24 to 30 inch waste. One of the guys with me made a comment on how much smaller men were "back then". I looked at him and said we were all smaller "back then", meaning when we were 18 years old as to being in our 40's (and beyond).

 

[b.loree]

In my opinion, this piece is as has been said, an original Baden M15 which unfortunately has suffered over the last 100 years. In my experience, shellac flakes off when subjected to alternating humid and dry conditions. The leather shrinks and expands, the shellac cracks and falls off. In the heat of an attic, it softens and can melt into ridges or even a bubble like surface. The shell in this case has also been dented by some sort of weighty object which was resting against it. The interior is in great shape....it is really too bad that the exterior is so bad. Regarding dents like this in the shell, I have tried many times to find a way to push them back out and fix the shell......no luck I have never seen/handled a size 60cm. helmet. Unfortunately, regarding waist size.....we all expand with age, the metabolism slows down and there is too much food and booze available.