I Need Advice & Help on Lost Pickelhaube

L

lafayette

New member
I am not a collector, but I have an issue which I need advice on. Roughly 28 years ago after my grandfather's death, my aunt had a garage sale. I was 16 and at school. My aunt sold both my grandfather's Purple Heart and a Pickelhaube that the 19 year old US Marine had taken off a German soldier's head after he had killed him in the trenches. She sold them for $5 each.

Now to the present day. It took me almost 30 years, but I tracked down the current location of the Pickelhaube. It spent about 10 years in a kindergarten classroom in my home town, acting as the rigmaster's hat in an annual carnival/circus that the teacher put on. She gave it to the woman who replaced her after retirement. That woman has now retired as well and has the Pickelhaube. She wants to keep it and give it to her son. I want it back.

She has agreed that she has no particular attachment to THAT Pickelhaube. So she would be willing to TRADE me for another one. Here is what I need help/advice on - If I needed to aquire a Pickelhaube for a trade to a non collector, what would be the most common/inexpensive helmet and where should I purchase it? I still have not seen the current condition of the Pickelhaube, but I remember it being intact. I would appreciate the thoughts of this community as how I could resolve my little dilema, it is a piece of my family history & lore that I cannot let slip away. Thank you for your time.
 
An M1915 might be the cheapest, but there are many factors, condition is very improtant, you need to make sure that the owner would be willing to trade for one that looks different. Your story claims that your grandfather took the helmet off a dead German soldier, this is very unlikely, as even the USMC did not get into the war until the last year, and the Germans were not wearing the spiked helmets in the trenches by that time, it is more likely that he acquired it some other way. If the helmet you are trying to get does not have the chin strap or cockades, then there would be no reason to seak one that had these items (the chin strap and cocades can nearly double the price of a helmet if original).
I hope you are able to make a trade, but for us to help much we need more information, it would be a shome for you to spend hundreds of dollars and then find out that the helmet ypu have is not somethng that the other person is willing to trade.
Best
Gus
 
As you all know, sometimes stories have a way of building over time. I had always thought it unlikely that he had taken the helmet off a soldier in the trenches. My grandfather did have a habit of "collecting" things. He was a storyteller of sorts, but the Pickelhaube doesn't diminish in importance to me if the story is not 100% true. Thank you for the correction.
 
I would ask her again to see the helmet and take pictures of it, then you will know what you are dealing with and need to replace!

I hope it works out

Jame
 
The fair thing would be to replace it with a nearly identical helmet. That way her son can't come to you later and complain that you ripped his mom (and him) off.

Take photos and post them, I'm sure you'll get more useful advice!

:D Ron
 
Yes I would agree...pictures have to be taken. You have to know what the helmet is...an M15 Prussian with grey metal fittings??? A model 1895 with brass fittings....Prussian, Bavarian, Baden???? This is an unfortunate situation but at least, she is willing to coperate with you. I would act on this ASAP before she changes her mind. This is one of the collector rules....buy immediately when you can or do whatever. Take action because if you dither someone else will walk in with the cash and walk off with the prize. He who hesitates is truly lost!
 
b.loree said:
Yes I would agree...pictures have to be taken. You have to know what the helmet is...an M15 Prussian with grey metal fittings??? A model 1895 with brass fittings....Prussian, Bavarian, Baden???? This is an unfortunate situation but at least, she is willing to coperate with you. I would act on this ASAP before she changes her mind. This is one of the collector rules....buy immediately when you can or do whatever. Take action because if you dither someone else will walk in with the cash and walk off with the prize. He who hesitates is truly lost!
Click to expand...

Proven more than once in my experience! Hopefully, it's a common type, MY luck would be that it's a Garde Reiter helmet or something....

:D Ron
 
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