WWI German Guards Officer Helmet

Good interior shots Jim, the liner is in great shape and totally correct for a private purchase officer. Is the sweatband calf skin or oil cloth? It looks like oil cloth to me which would indicate a wartime helmet. If there are no extra holes in the helmet behind the plate and no signs of new solder on the screw posts then this is the original Garde officer helmet plate that was put on 100 yrs ago. I know we are demanding here but if you can.....take the plate off, do one close up of the front and another of the back. Last one of the front with out the plate on. Usually there is a nice ghost outline of the plate on the shell where it has been on for so long.
The square nuts shown in the one pic are totally correct and steel which is another indicator of a mid war piece. Pre war, these nuts would have been brass. Is the interior of the shell kind of fuzzy and black? It looks black in the one pic This would indicate a lacquered felt helmet shell. These are not that common but again, they did make these.
 
I am scared to remove the nuts, probably will give it a go next time out. In a day or two I will post pictures of another helmet which I cannot figure out what the crest is from, you will see on stud broke free of the crest and the other tore through the leather (thus my concern).

I just played with the Guards helmet yesterday, as I recall yes the dark interior was fuzzy, I will easily confirm that next time out.

Thanks for all your expertise.

Jim
 
Hi Jim: A couple of things.... there are no grommets in the officer helmets for the plate so lots of times the officer holes are larger than the usual enlisted mans with grommets, so maybe its not torn. There are no grommets in private purchase helmet shells. Regarding the pic of your GF, he is wearing a Prussian M95 OR helmet....brass fittings, easy to buy. The officer helmet plates have 2 ways of attachment...screw posts and square nuts like your Garde or soldered prongs which are bent back on to the shell (war time).
 
Excellent, I will pick up a M95. Regular army not reserve, correct?



Note: I will put up the mystery helmet with the hole in a few minutes (not mine, I did express concern and interest in purchasing all WWI leather helmets that he had but the did not go well at all).


Thanks,
Jim
 
I do not see a reservist cross on his helmet plate, so just a regular Prussian M95 would do. The other guy has a small cross stitched to his uberzug (helmet cover). Don't know when the photo was taken but if around 1914 they are wearing out dated amo pouches. Their bayonets and rifles are also old models no longer used by the regular army. This was common, reservists were equipped with out dated cast offs from the regulars. Sorry I can not ID the rifle and bayonet models but lots of members here can.
 
Rifles are the Mauser model 1888, bayonet and leather set are for that rifle. I don't think the two guys in the photo are from the same unit. One has collar and cuff lace the other does not.
 
The elongated spike base is the strangest element of this helmet. It looks like an original, 100 year part, no? My best guess is that it is original and original to the helmet given the provenance and the fact that the rest of the helmet appears correct, but I've never seen one like this. Does anybody think this fake or assembled post-war from mismatched parts? That would be the other possibility, but I lean towards thinking it's original.

It's been cleaned and polished recently which raises the possibility that somebody mucked around with it. Still, I think probably ok.

Mark D.
 
I cleaned the outside, did nothing to the inside. Used a toothbrush with oil on the metal and buffed the black with a cotton cloth. 20+ years ago somebody polished the chin strap, I used the toothbrush with some gun oil still in the bristles to brush off the polishing compound that was between the scales.

Jim
 
Good info on the rifle, thanks. Back of the postcard has my great grandfathers greetings to his family, dated autumn 1914.

Jim
 
The Guards helmet is now home to stay so I took off the front crest for pictures.

Does it look good? Would appreciated opinions.

Thanks,
Jim
 
From the one photo it does look like there were two holes on the front that had been patched and repaired. They appear to be close together as would be with a Saxon wappen. Would it have been possible for someone to be a OYV in a Saxon unit and then find a position in a guard unit?

Correction to my post about the rifles in the photo. Instead of saying; "Mauser model 1888", I should have said, "Infantry Rifle Model 1888", as this rifle was not a Mauser design.
 
Thanks for the info, I now have a 1888 rifle on display in the front room :D

I looked both inside and out with a magnifying glass, I just see the the two holes for mounting the front crest, no repairs.

Jim
 
The wappen is a mid to late war piece as it has soldered prongs which are to hold it on to the helmet. Normally, we have 2 screw posts on all officer wappen. The helmet shown is also from this period because if we look at the chin scales they are zinc, the original gold wash has come off over time. This is typical of what happens but everything is still original. Regarding the wappen again, what looks like filled holes is actually solder which has been put on the 2 prongs which hold the "Garde star" on to the eagle itself, so no problem or repair. These helmets from late war often have a mixture of brass and zinc fittings as we see here......zinc scales, brass wappen. You also see zinc spike with brass pearl ring, zinc spines etc.
PS...Jim what we really need here is a pic of the wappen directly from the front so we can see the Garde Star and the entire front of the bird. For instance it looks like the enamel behind the motto is gone???
 
Great, here are some more pics. But dang, I don't see any enamel.

Still, if original WWI I will be really happy, probably start learning about the guard units so I can try to imagine the history it could have seen.

JIm
 
Jim Newman said:
I looked both inside and out with a magnifying glass, I just see the the two holes for mounting the front crest, no repairs.

Jim
Click to expand...

You would easily see repairs in the shell from another wappen. I think the depressions by the wing 'wrists' were what he saw.
Also, I don't know if it's parallax in the camera or not, but to me the shell looks pretty tall, like a much earlier than war-time helmet.
The Garde star has a very high relief to it and I would guess is made of three main parts (?). Interesting that it's like a cross between an EM and Officer style. A wartime affectation?

:D Ron
 
b.loree said:
The wappen is a mid to late war piece as it has soldered prongs which are to hold it on to the helmet. Normally, we have 2 screw posts on all officer wappen. The helmet shown is also from this period because if we look at the chin scales they are zinc, the original gold wash has come off over time. This is typical of what happens but everything is still original. Regarding the wappen again, what looks like filled holes is actually solder which has been put on the 2 prongs which hold the "Garde star" on to the eagle itself, so no problem or repair. These helmets from late war often have a mixture of brass and zinc fittings as we see here......zinc scales, brass wappen. You also see zinc spike with brass pearl ring, zinc spines etc.
PS...Jim what we really need here is a pic of the wappen directly from the front so we can see the Garde Star and the entire front of the bird. For instance it looks like the enamel behind the motto is gone???
Click to expand...

Brian, as Jim mentioned above, there should be no enamel because this is an Unteroffizier type eagle plate. And look at the crown: it is not void. The Reich cockade is officer's, but the Prussian one is also for an Unteroffizier. Therefore we have a mix of rank attributes here.
 
That clears everything up, thanks for the extra pics Jim. Wow, that is a very nice private purchase Garde wappen, just look at how far that star projects in front of the eagle! Congrats on that and the helmet. :thumb up:
 
Thanks guys! Figure this one will stick around, SO does anyone put the gold back on the chinscales and spine?

Very happy :D

Jim
 
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