I purchased this helmet in a french local auction sale one month ago. This saxony helmet was for sale with another saxony infantry helmet. They were both coming from a local estate, typically somebody in this Bourges (center France) family was a WW1 vet.
The helmet, a very large size, is for a mounted (metal chinscales) artilleryman of the 8th saxony campaign artillery regiment n°78 and is perfectly stamped "78.A" into the back visor. The front plate shows the reservist cross.
When I received it I had the great suprise to discover that this helmet has been probably picked up on the battlefield. The top ball is damaged with what I think to be a splinter.
This is exactly the kind of helmet with a story I like the most to collect. Most of my small helmet collection is coming from estates or directly from vet families. If you are interested I can show you some of them with the related stories. In France, its still happens sometimes that we discover war memorabilies with stories.
One of the famous Illustration magazine picture printed during the war shows an upside down trench during winter 1915 full of dead germans and surviving french poilus... It is cold, it is dark, it is like hell and you see one of the guy picking up all the spike helmets on the dead bodies... very impressing but also the evidence that spikes helmet were very appreciated war trophies....
The helmet, a very large size, is for a mounted (metal chinscales) artilleryman of the 8th saxony campaign artillery regiment n°78 and is perfectly stamped "78.A" into the back visor. The front plate shows the reservist cross.
When I received it I had the great suprise to discover that this helmet has been probably picked up on the battlefield. The top ball is damaged with what I think to be a splinter.
This is exactly the kind of helmet with a story I like the most to collect. Most of my small helmet collection is coming from estates or directly from vet families. If you are interested I can show you some of them with the related stories. In France, its still happens sometimes that we discover war memorabilies with stories.
One of the famous Illustration magazine picture printed during the war shows an upside down trench during winter 1915 full of dead germans and surviving french poilus... It is cold, it is dark, it is like hell and you see one of the guy picking up all the spike helmets on the dead bodies... very impressing but also the evidence that spikes helmet were very appreciated war trophies....