M91 Land Gendarme

R

ridingroanhorses

New member
About a year ago, I purchased an M91 helm, in very good condition, with a single NCO Land Kokarde, as well as Garde Eagle & Star.
Inside are the initials "L G 1893". For the longest time, I thought it to
be an eigentumshelm, but recently, I learned that it's a kind of Territorial
Police helmet, & that the Star was used in 1895.

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether my information is correct and, if so, why did a Police unit use a garde as opossed to a Line Eagle.

tanks, RRH
 
Wow,
This subject has popped up several times before, and there was a thread that was several dedicated pages or so. Unfortunately, all was lost when the "Hacker" took out the websight.
It started when I first joined this forum to discover the identity of a korpus I bought and was trying to get information on how to go about restoring it to it's original trim. With the help of Tony, Joe and Brian I was to find that the LG die stamped into the inside front of my helmet stood for "Land Gendarmerie", who were as you said Rural Police. There were 2 types, Mounted and dismounted.
The dismounted officers wore a helmet similiar in appearance to a Garde Grenadier,and later also adopted the Garde Star. I am unsure when they started using the Star, but 1895 could be right. I have observed helmets dated from 1883 to 1898, and have seen two types of korpus's used for dismounted. The older version is similiar in construction to the M1871 korpus with a shorter rear visor. I had an unvented spine. Perlring spike and flat chin scales that were mounted by screw type side posts. As was mentioned earlier, the L.G. over a date (1890 on mine) was die stamped into the inside forehead area. Another point to mention is that all L.G. helmets I have observed, have ungrommeted holes for mounting the screw posts of their wappen. Tony had a really fantastic period photo of an L.G. officer wearing his pickelhaube in the old thread. We were fortunate to have another member of the forum, after reading the LG thread, submit pictures of what I now believe to be a newer version of the dismounted officers helmet. It was ink stamped LG over 1898(?), and it was more of a M91 style korpus. Can't recall if the spine was unvented or not, and a M91/95 spike. It also had ungrommeted screw post holes for mounting the wappen. The wappen was the Garde Eagle & Star, which was too big for that shell. Luckily for me it is a perfect fit on my korpus! We had pics of that helmet that are now gone.
The mounted version has a Dragoon style korpus, convex chin scales, cruciform spike base and Perlring spike. Unvented spine with exposed rivet heads.
Do you have any pics of your L.G. to share with us?

Geo
 
Wylie,

Thanks for responding. I'll have some pics taken here @ work, then
submit them for posting, however that's done.

My helm is similar to your 1890: die-stamped, with pearlring, flat,
well made chinscales mounted on M91 bolt-on type lugs. The leather is
rather heavy & in very good condition for its age. It also came with the
conical black leather case, also stamped L.G., which made me think it was
private purchase for the longest time!

Could someone please inform me how photos are posted ??

Best wishes
RRH
 
Hi Mike,

Follow the instructions exactly, and you will post perfect pictures. First goes to the site:

http://img181.exs.cx/

soon after click in SEEKING (or the word who appears ), soon after click in HOST IT. When the small image appears, go to HOTLINKS(1) and copy. Go back to Pickelhaube.com, glue in your message and " voilá ". Following those instructions, you won't need to place

Otto
Click to expand...

shutz1.jpg

shutz2.jpg
 
Nice helmet, it appears to be a slightly different / newer version of an LG helmet I haven't had the opportunity to see. Maybe it being post '91 is why it sports M91 lugs. Also a different style of Perlring spike than I've seen before. I wonder what the correct nomenclature for this type perlring would be?

Very nice helmet, more and more of these are comming out of the woodwork. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Geo
 
Hi Riding:
I will get Margo to have a look at your pics and see if she can improve the quality. I also have one of these helmets but the older model with grenadier eagle (garde style) with no star. Brian
 
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