chinstrap
Active member
Hi all,
I've just joined, although I have bought and sold a few pickelhaubes over the years, and had some helpful advice from Brian in the past. I have a small but varied collection of helmets - British Cavalry (Dragoons, Yeomanry and Lancer), British Blue-cloths, a couple of pickelhaubes,and my latest acquistion, a mysterious Austrian helmet. I'd welcome views on what this one is all about. It's similar to the 1910 cavalry helmet at first sight, but there are quite a few differences.
As the pictures show, the helmet plate is a very nice, heavy, brass double -headed Imperial eagle. However, it's only attached by one central lug through which is threaded some old brass wire, and inspection of the interior shows that there has clearly been another plate on this helmet, as there are four small holes, in a diamond shape. The North and South ones are behind the current plate, but the East and West are outside it by about an inch from each wing and the holes for these two on the exterior of the skull have been filled, although this is only visible on close examination and looks like it was done some time ago.
It has also clearly had a different comb at some time, as there are extra holes on the inside of the skull, and signs of a repair on the neck piece where the original, longer, comb was fastened. Again, the current comb looks like it's been there a long time. It's not like any of the Austrian cavalry combs I can find.
Other differences from the cavalry helmets I have looked at are the absence of the two converging brass strips on each side of the skull and the presence of lion head fittings for the chinscales, rather than rosettes.
The nearest things I've seen so far as the skull and lionheads are concerned are some Austrian and German firemens' helmets, but the combs were quite different and did not go down onto the neck piece. The existing comb does, however, look like the sort of thing old brass British firehelmets had.
Any ideas? It's obviously a composite, but is it an official one, or just something somebody's put together from available bits? Whatever it is I like it, and it will be getting a clean up shortly.
Thanks for your help.
Patrick
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I've just joined, although I have bought and sold a few pickelhaubes over the years, and had some helpful advice from Brian in the past. I have a small but varied collection of helmets - British Cavalry (Dragoons, Yeomanry and Lancer), British Blue-cloths, a couple of pickelhaubes,and my latest acquistion, a mysterious Austrian helmet. I'd welcome views on what this one is all about. It's similar to the 1910 cavalry helmet at first sight, but there are quite a few differences.
As the pictures show, the helmet plate is a very nice, heavy, brass double -headed Imperial eagle. However, it's only attached by one central lug through which is threaded some old brass wire, and inspection of the interior shows that there has clearly been another plate on this helmet, as there are four small holes, in a diamond shape. The North and South ones are behind the current plate, but the East and West are outside it by about an inch from each wing and the holes for these two on the exterior of the skull have been filled, although this is only visible on close examination and looks like it was done some time ago.
It has also clearly had a different comb at some time, as there are extra holes on the inside of the skull, and signs of a repair on the neck piece where the original, longer, comb was fastened. Again, the current comb looks like it's been there a long time. It's not like any of the Austrian cavalry combs I can find.
Other differences from the cavalry helmets I have looked at are the absence of the two converging brass strips on each side of the skull and the presence of lion head fittings for the chinscales, rather than rosettes.
The nearest things I've seen so far as the skull and lionheads are concerned are some Austrian and German firemens' helmets, but the combs were quite different and did not go down onto the neck piece. The existing comb does, however, look like the sort of thing old brass British firehelmets had.
Any ideas? It's obviously a composite, but is it an official one, or just something somebody's put together from available bits? Whatever it is I like it, and it will be getting a clean up shortly.
Thanks for your help.
Patrick
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