Brian, Wojtek and Sandmann, many thanks for jumping in on this. I apologise if my second post came off as somehow critical, that was not my intention- I genuinely thought I had made some sort of brain-dead mistake in how I posed my request: perhaps asking for info on something that possibly didn't exist! Fact is, you go through a lot of stages in the learning curve, the first is learning that you know nothing, the second is learning how much you need to learn! and that second stage is pretty much where I am now. As I said, I had literally never, ever, seen a dismounted Wurtt. kokarde that was not an 1891 and so wondered if I was wandering off into the realms of fantasy under some half-remembered but mistaken impression. Brian, I had a vague memory of a Kokarden category from many years ago (when I first joined) but the Forum has gone through a lot of changes since then and am not surprised that some things fell through the cracks. It would be very instructive if it could be resurrected, so many thanks for considering that. Also very many thanks for the pictures which confirm I am not yet devoid of marbles, and the object of my search really does exist! I take your point about the possibility of the helm being Hessen but I can assure you that it definitely is a Wurttemburg Border Guard Officer helm, as per the EM example featured on Tony's site (and susbequently sold to Amy in 2017). The combination of squared front visor and round spike basis, plus the green and red inner visor liners confirm this as only two units ever used this configuration: the Wurtt. Border Guard (silver trim) and the Landjager Korps (brass/gilded trim). These were both model 1871 but only issued in 1891. Incidentally, as per Tony's site information, Border Guards only ever used a single Wurtt. kokarde as they were not an Imperial force and, as if to confirm my thoughts, my helm has NO marks of a kokarde ever being on the left side!
I was lucky enough to find this helmet in awful condition whilst looking for a 'parts' helmet to do other restorations. At first I didn't 'get it' and thought nothing of it, but later realised I had found a rare little beast which I could not just scavenge for parts - I just had to help it out. Now I have re-stitched the front visor, acquired a spike and chinscales and wappen for it - just the kokarde still left to find and then I will start to block out the skull before attempting a re-finish from the fascinating recipes that have been exhaustively discussed in the Restoration section.
Once again I have learned something new, like I do most times I log on, and I thank you all for taking the trouble to educate an idiot!
All the best,
Steve