The rarest Tschapka I've ever seen

Adler

Adler

New member
Well, I’ve been collecting since 1973 now (guess I’m getting really old) and I’ve never even seen one of these. One can imagine (or not) what went through my mind when I encountered this Tscapka. I was immediately in the “gotta have” state of mind and it didn’t take long to be the new owner of this rare bird.

I have a pickelhaube with the same kind of olive drab trim and also recognized that on this Tschapka. About the Pickelhaube it’s known there was only one producer of that type, but about the Tschapka I have no documentation at all…

The body of the Tschapka is hard felt and it’s covered with a the same cloth as the Pickelhaube I have. The trim is made of very thin olive drab artificial leather and the table top is also covered with the same material. The M91 side posts have the reinforcement pieces but onfortunately the left one is a bit damaged. There are two ventilation holes in the shaft of the table top and on the inside of the front visor there’s a blanck label. I don’t know what the meaning of this label was, but it seems there was never anything written on it.

I added a picture of the Pickelhaube for comparison…

Enjoy the pictures…

Adler

View attachment 4

View attachment 3

View attachment 2

View attachment 1

 
Wow you nailed it yet again with this one
Without a doubt would love to take this one of your hand

Wel done karel

Jonas
 
I do not want to throw a monkey wrench in the works but, I have seen several felt spikes with the leather trim around them.

Fakes !! Wouldn't this be counted in that number ?
 
Hey Pickelhauben, this is the real deal. This is probably the rarest prussian helmet ever made. Absolutely an amazing find !
 
Pontiac9999 said:
Hey Pickelhauben, this is the real deal. This is probably the rarest prussian helmet ever made. Absolutely an amazing find !
Click to expand...

OK But the trim threw me off.

But you know the fakes that I speak of .
 
yes, there are a lot of leather trimmed fakes that came out of the UK in the 70's, and whenever you see a leather trimmed version you should use good judgement.

However, this one is no doubt the real deal, and one of the rarest pieces I have seen in awhile.

Congrats Adler!

James
 
pickelhauben said:
OK But the trim threw me off.

But you know the fakes that I speak of .
Click to expand...

The trim is not leather. It's oilcloth. Only one manufacturer seemed to do this. Karel has an example and here is mine:

http://www.kaisersbunker.com/feldgrau/helmets/fgh44.htm

So this appears to be a Tschapka made by the same manufacturer. Perhaps a Probe piece? Never seen one of these before. Now it's in the best collection I can think of :thumbright:
 
Thanks again for your comments guys, they are really appeciated!
Meanwhile the monkey wrench has been thrown back, so I don't need to reply on that anymore. Of course I also know the ones with the brown leather trim, but you can spot these fakes from a mile away…
Tony, thanks to having seen your pickelhaube, I purchased mine and because of that, I was able to recognize this Tschapka… So special thanks to you sir!

Adler
 
Excellent find, congratulations! Truly the rarest of the rare. We did encounter a felt tschapka at the SOS this year but it was in worse condition than this piece and did not have the green oil cloth trim or top. Up until that time I had never seen a real original in all my years of collecting other than in period pictures.
 
Congratulations!
There is no doubt about the originality of this helmet, really a nice and rare item!
I could be a little bit jealous...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top