World's Smallest Grenadier Officer Haube

[b.loree]

Despite the covid "sh-- storm" we are going through, restoration work continues here at Chez Loree. One of our members dropped off this little fella to me at the SOS. I have worked on issued helmets this small but never an officer (ref "Little Willie"). I would say this is probably a 52-53cm size hat. It might fit a newborn of today's generation but none older than that. The helme as you will see is of unusual construction, leather shell but the visors are made of some stiff fibre material, not vulcan fibre and not cardboard. So let's take a look:

Can anyone spot something different in this first photo??

Obviously, the task here is to restitch both visors.

After 100+ years, this little guy is also grossly misshapen.

Old style Grenadier wappen.

The fittings...zinc scales with old Grenadier wappen....hard to understand as the last 2 Grenadier Regts converted to the new Garde style wappen in 1913. Still, hard to explain why a prewar helmet would have zinc scales. :? The spike does not unscrew for parade trichter.

 

[b.loree]

Both visors now stitched on:

I believe this hat sat on it's side for 100 years which caused the shell's problems and cracked/bent the rear visor....no way to fix that.

Restoration puts a great deal of stress on the "subject" to restitch a visor, my hands have to go inside the helmet for every stitch. The ancient threads holding the silk liner and sweatband get a lot of abuse. This haube is uniquely constructed as the shell seam is on the front of the helmet. Paper thin leather strips are glued on both side of the shell to hide the stitches. My efforts have produced a crack in this glued leather. However, there is no way around this.

 

[aicusv]

Interesting piece, looking forward to see more.

 

[b.loree]

A size comparison of this officer wappen with an 1860's one from my collection.

 

[JohnS3rd]

Interesting Haube, does anyone think that it may be a salesman sample?