Prussian Police Officer's Pickelhaube

J

Jim Newman

New member
Here is what I believe to be a WWI era Prussian Police officer's Pickelhaube. Three for the four scres holding on the spike are wrong and the crest doesn't fit too well.

Figure just a regular guys helmet as is has a leather liner.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Jim
 
Probably pre-WWI with that liner, which is an early officer style from what I can see. Also, the leather has probably shrunken a bit, so the wappen isn't fitting well. I have one with a similar liner with a 1902 date, which may not be the manufacture date (which may be earlier).


:D Ron
 
I have said this before but I am a voice in the wilderness. For some reason those liners are known as pre-1880 officer liners. I don't know why and the facts just do not back that up. You could order those at any time. They were a downgrade to the regular officers liner. It seems as though police and firemen as well as Beamte all had private purchase helmets. No one really believed me. The absolute school even wrote emails about my opinion. I'm too old and disabled to care. :happy3:
 
joerookery said:
I have said this before but I am a voice in the wilderness. For some reason those liners are known as pre-1880 officer liners. I don't know why and the facts just do not back that up. You could order those at any time. They were a downgrade to the regular officers liner. It seems as though police and firemen as well as Beamte all had private purchase helmets. No one really believed me. The absolute school even wrote emails about my opinion. I'm too old and disabled to care. :happy3:
Click to expand...

Your voice has been heard. :wink: I think it's such an intrenched idea that it's difficult to think otherwise, but the fact of a downgrade or lesser quality would be understandable. A stupid question (perhaps), when was the silk introduced? The fact that it would be easier to produce a silk liner than one of these with grommets in each of the two liner tab holes, as I've seen on some, would perhaps keep the former idea going.

By the way, while you're in the wilderness, grill up a steak for me, will ya?

:D Ron
 
Hey Jim: What you have there is not a police helme but a Prussian Customs Officer helmet. They have that funny tulip spike, cruciform spike base and the big "W" Reichs Eagle helmet plate. The rest of these "good old boys" got lost on the helmet ID some how. :)
 
ps1139 by joerookery, on Flickr

Prussian Kommunalpolizei

This is considered a helmet for Prussian Kommunalpolizei model 1896.

The real key is not the very specialized spike but rather the spike base. This one has a cruciform base. The exact same helmet with a round spike base is for Prussian Beamte. While this one is police often the police helmets are confused with customs.

ps1138 by joerookery, on Flickr

Prussian Beamte

This is considered a helmet for either military or civil Beamte model 1896.

The real key is not the very specialized spike but rather the spike base. This one is round. The exact same helmet with a cruciform spike base is for the police. While this one is Beamte often the police helmets are confused with customs which had no ball.
 
Wow, thanks for the clarification! Customs official sounds like it would be a little more unique.

I really enjoy knowing the actual history.


On a side note how does a person decide to have a helmet restored? I have seen great work posted on this site but don't know if I should consider restoration on any of mine or my friends helmets.


Jim
 
Hard to say Jim.....I do restorations and most of the works posted are mine that I have done for people. It sort of depends on the value of the helmet ie is it worth sinking extra cash into the piece? Seems to me you have a Garde officer helmet. If that needed work, then it would be worth it to spend some cash on getting it restored. Now a run of the mill Prussian M15, you might think twice about sinking money into that because they are so common. Anyway, you can PM me or email me with pics if you decide to restore something and I will quote you a price.
 
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