World's Smallest Haube

b.loree

b.loree

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This little guy arrived on my doorstep yesterday. He has great markings including a size 51 1/2 cm stamp, the finish is excellent, original kokarden and chin strap. I have never in all my years of collecting/restoring seen a pickelhaube this small before. 53 cm and 54, I have seen but this? This has got to be the World's Smallest Haube :? Both visors need restitching, and part of the liner:



Someone has attempted a crude restitch using huge thread.




Great markings: JR 24 1904, IIB 1913, 8C II, 51 1/2. This of course translates to Infantry Regt. 24 2nd Battalion, 8th Company. Garniture 2

 
Wow, what a great looking helmet.

Is there any way to know the maker of a helmet if it's not marked?
 
Unfortunately, Trevor there is no way to ID at least not that I know of. There is a type of Lobster tail Helme with unique characteristics made by Lachman but they are always marked.
 
I am going to entitle this post "Me and Little Willie" Willie of course for the Crown Prince and the "Little" is pretty obvious. Willie and I were getting along famously, talking about the old days, not that I was there but I have read the veteran accounts, true Kameraden ! I had promised Willie that I could probably solve all his stitch problems in about 2 days. I started with the front visor having consulted with Willie about which one he wanted fixed first. The stitch went beautifully for the first pass across the stitch line, every hole was lined up and it was like stitching through butter.....Sweet! I didn't even have to remove Willie's visor trim. However, things were about to go horribly wrong :eek: . The mechanics of visor restitch are as follows (briefly), the fingers of the liner have to be pulled out so you can access the stitch line, all holes have to be cleaned out. You stitch from the inside to the outside back and forth with some motion. Unfortunately, despite appearances (refer to first interior pic) Willie had some real liner problems. The liner was paper thin, stiff, cracked and dry along the crease formed by the shell rim. The original thread was rotten and turning to dust. The motion of stitching caused a significant amount of the liner to break along this crease as can be seen in the following pictures:


First an overview, ..... this is a restoration nightmare! :x


The right side......Torn!

A closeup of the front of the helmet showing how the liner split right along the crease. The leather is extremely delicate and will not even hold thread when you attempt to restitch. How the F..k am I going to fix this?? Well, there is a way and I have no choice but to get into it. Continued.......
 
Code Blue... please save poor Little Willie. I never noticed the manufacturers stamp, or tag... Can you read either one of them Brian?

Chuck
 
Will do Chuck, I have literally been "patching him up" over the last couple of days! Regarding the tag, there are the remains of 2 but I can't read them. They are name tags used to ID soldier's property. There is a cloth version that was stitched into clothing for laundry ID. Sometimes, we see the cloth ones glued in that same position inside the hauben as well. I read somewhere or maybe it was a comment on the forum that soldiers had to buy these tags themselves. The tag is white, rectangular with black border. The name and Regt information is stamped within the rectangle. There are probably some pics here on the forum.
 
That is a nice looking little helmet. Remember, size doesn't matter... the little ones can see just as much action as the larger ones. Pickelhaube, that is.

:D Ron
 
The "Saga of Little Willie" continues. The only solution for this "tear problem " is to cut patches of thin leather and glue the on the back side of the liner. In this case the leather came from retro ladies kid gloves probably dating to the 1940's-50's.




A thin strip of dyed linen(black) was also glued in at the front of the shell. This can just barely be seen in the second pic. So, Willie got patched up, not perfect but the best I can do. The next step was to get the rear visor stitched back on. There was another surprise here as there were 2 rows of stitch holes in the shell which merged into each other. In my opinion a new rear visor had been put on at some time. Anyway, that was also overcome and the project completed:



I always finish up with boot polish along the new stitches....it seals the cotton thread for protection, it fills in and gives uniform colour to small areas where little bits of finish pop off around the stitch holes. This was supposed to be a simple 2 day project. However, one never knows what surprises can happen with 100+ year old leather.
 
you did very well as looking to the pics
that was one hell of a liner
the small one stays the small one
graet job restauring it

jonas
 
You had me figuratively holding my breath for a while Brian, when I saw photos of the liner having fallen apart.

Congratulations once again on your fine work! You're a fantastic craftsman! :bravo:

Best Regards,

Alan
 
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